


In The Middle

by Kat_Herondale



Series: Intertwined [1]
Category: Agent Carter (TV), Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-22
Updated: 2019-04-14
Packaged: 2019-11-01 23:30:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 30
Words: 47,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17876846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kat_Herondale/pseuds/Kat_Herondale
Summary: It was an accident. One moment she was in 1954, looking for old weapons that could be repurposed for Shield in Howard’s old warehouse. The next moment, she was in 2018 and being sucked into a battle that would determine the fate of the universe.





	1. The Begining

**Author's Note:**

> "If we could see the context of the universe in which we exist  
> And we could see how small each one of us is  
> Against the vastness of what we don’t know" -Tiny Glowing Screens Part 2 by Watsky
> 
> Work in progress. I have the majority finished and I am going to try and post most of it before Avengers: End Game. I've been working on this fic slowly since Infinity War came out. I'm thinking it will probably end up at around 50,000-60,000 words. The summary of the story will probably change as I write more. This fic will not be canon compliant with Avengers:End Game. It may or may not be canon compliant with Captain Marvel.

The world was in flames.

Peggy remembered a time when the fields beneath her were green and beautiful. There used to be streams with clear water. Everything was torn up and devastated. Peggy could see the soldiers still fighting a losing battle. They were desperately hacking away at a monster Peggy had never dreamed of. She could smell the smoke, she could see the flames eating at the grass.

Peggy was perched on this ledge, frozen in place. She couldn’t force herself to move. She wanted to help the soldiers fight against this unknown enemy. She _needed_ to help them.

There was a strange, whirling noise. It sounded oddly familiar, but she couldn’t place it. Peggy managed to rip her eyes away from the carnage below her.

To her left was a man, he had some strange metal covering most of his body. His face was bruised and bloody. He glanced over at her. He looked absolutely heart broken. The corners of his mouth twitched up into some sort of weak attempt at a smile. Mixed with the blood on his face were layers of dirt.

Peggy felt a pressure on her right hand. She twisted around to look at the person sitting on that side of her. He stared at her, his chest rising and falling. Despite the grime covering his face, the long hair, and thick beard, Peggy recognized him. She would recognize him anywhere.

Steve.

She couldn’t manage to speak.

Steve gave her a weak smile also. He ran a hand through his hair. It was slightly darker than what she had remembered.

“We’ll save them,” Steve said, giving her an empty promise.

 

Peggy Carter shot up from her bed, sheets crumpling to the floor. The room was illuminated only by the street lights outside. She heaved, not managing to catch her breath as she made her way towards the bathroom. In the old days, she would have hurried to the kitchen. She would have made a cup of tea and sat silently until Angie made her way down to the kitchen while singing a happy song from her latest Broadway show.

That wasn’t the case anymore. Peggy lived alone in some giant monstrosity of a penthouse. The house taunted her. There were too many happy memories turned bitter here. Angie in the living room, laughing at the foolish Captain America Radio show. Daniel laying out files and digging through them. Howard in the back of the room, tinkering with something and making his crude comments. Those moments were gone.

Howard had given Angie the opportunity to become a movie star. Angie had written about being with stars like Marilyn Monroe. Peggy was happy for her. Angie had a small role in a movie being released soon. She had even invited Peggy to go along to the opening night. Of course, Peggy had turned Angie down as there was too much work to be done. Shield was growing at an alarming rate. Peggy had made the decision to send Daniel to Washington, DC. He was working on starting a branch down there. Peggy was considering heading that way herself within the next year. Howard had become… a different man. She couldn’t stand New York City anymore. She needed a change.

She sat on the bathroom floor with her head buried in her lap. She allowed herself this one moment of weakness. The dream had shaken her. 

Peggy stood up, smoothing down her nightgown. She looked in the mirror and began the process of taking out her curls. Peggy wasn’t sure of the time, but she had work to do. Howard had decided on a whim to clean out some of his storage units. She would phone Jarvis and they could make the trip a few hours early.

 

Peggy Carter stood in the huge warehouse in upstate New York. It contained a surprising amount of junk. But there had to be weapons worthwhile for her to bring back to Shield. The only reason why she had taken up this mission instead of assigning an agent was in case there was anything that could potentially fall into the wrong hands. Peggy was hoping the next Zero Matter wouldn’t be discovered in this disorganized mess. There was over 10 years of inventions in this high security warehouse. Near the entrance, Peggy had seen the flying car that Steve and Bucky had once gushed about seeing. Mr. Jarvis trailed behind Peggy. He seemed overwhelmed at this massive amount of stuff.

Mr. Jarvis opened his mouth, as if he was going to say something and then just sighed loudly.

Peggy glanced over at him and then hurried down one of the hallways. The warehouse was deafeningly silent save for their footsteps. She could hear his footsteps following her down the rows of shelves.

“Director Carter,” Jarvis started. He stood across one of the rows, staring at her. Peggy turned to look at him, crossing her arms over her chest. “Ana and I have been concerned.”

“With?” Peggy questioned. She knew where this was going.

“Mr. Stark has been equally upset with the upcoming anniversary. He took a trip to try searching for _him_ again.”

Howard had remained hopefully that perhaps Steve could be recovered. Perhaps Steve could be saved. Peggy hadn’t entertained those thoughts in years. Once Peggy had given him his makeshift funeral by pouring his blood into the waters of New York City, she had accepted his death. That didn’t mean it didn’t hurt any less as the years moved on.

“I’m quite all right, Mr. Jarvis. But thank you for yours and Ms. Jarvis’ concerns.”

Peggy spun on her heel and rushed to the next row of shelving. She wouldn’t have a conversation like this with Jarvis today. She couldn’t have this conversation. Jarvis hadn’t known Steve or Bucky. There was no way for him to understand the way Howard and herself were feeling. Peggy would get past this though. There were plans for some of the original Commandos to come to New York City. She would finish up the process of transferring their unit to Shield. They also had plans to go out. All surviving members would come back together for one last meal. Peggy just hoped Howard would be back in time. Maybe seeing their old friends, relieving the memories for one last night, would help him understand that it was time to move on. They would never find Steve.

Peggy pulled a box off the nearest shelf and began digging through it.

Nothing of value inside of it.

Nothing worthwhile in the next 30 boxes either.

Peggy started to realize how much of a waste of time this was. She had hoped Howard had some sort of invention that could potentially change the game. Something that would give an advantage to Shield over the FBI when the government was determining funding. Peggy just needed to find it and get either him or the Shield scientists to improve on it.

Jarvis had ended up searching close by. He had set aside one object. It caught Peggy’s eye. It was strange. It was a big piece of metal with a chain attacked to it. It almost appeared to be some sort of necklace.

Jarvis and Peggy locked eyes. She knelt to pick up the object. It didn’t have a thick layer of dust like many of the other objects. Jarvis scrunched his forehead up as his gaze returned to the object.

“I do not recall Mr. Stark ever working on an item like this.”

“Is it a necklace?” Peggy questioned, picking up the object and turning it over in her hands. She wasn’t sure how, but the object felt important.

Mr. Jarvis tilted his head at the necklace. It was a big chunk of ornate metal.

“It almost looks like an eye,” said Jarvis.

Peggy remained silent. If it looks like an eye, then perhaps it was Howard’s response to the mindwiping machines the SSR had come up with back in ’46 or ’47. Peggy turned the metal pupil of the eye to face away from them. Just in case. It was a little too heavy to wear as a necklace. It was much too large to sneak into a mission. It had to have a different purpose. But, what did it do?

Mr. Jarvis seemed to be pondering the same question.

Peggy turned the item over, looking for any places that could reveal a hidden note or instructions. Peggy stood up.

“I think I’m going to take this outside. Better lighting may help.”

Mr. Jarvis nodded and went back to digging through the boxes. Peggy made her way across the floor. She picked her way around the items scattered across the warehouse floor.

Peggy stepped into the sunlight. She held the object into the air. The movement loosened a piece of paper tucked into the side of the eye. Peggy unfolded the fresh paper. It was a sticky note neatly folded up.

_‘Ready?’_

The paper fell to the ground. Peggy recognized the handwriting. She had seen his unique handwriting on the board during planning meetings. Steve had always had a strange way of writing the letters ‘e’ and ‘y’ in a way Peggy had never seen before. There was no possible way it was from Steve. He never would have written something like this. Peggy felt anger boil up inside her. Howard had planted this thing to waste her bloody time. This was a cruel trick. But Peggy couldn’t think of a reason why he would play this joke on her.

There was something strange on the upper corner of the sticky note. It was an upper case ‘A’ with a circle around it. That was a symbol she had never seen before. There was no organization with that logo. If it was a new agency, there would have been no way they could make it past Howard’s security measures.

Peggy took another look at the object that looked extremely similar to an eye. Peggy noticed something. The pupil of the eye had a seam that implied it could open. Peggy clutched the eye in one hand and used the other to force the pupil open. Peggy faced the object away from her, just in case it decided to release some sort of chemical. After several long moments, Peggy faced the object towards her again. The eye was glowing green.

“Mr. Jarvis!” Peggy shouted.

Peggy made the mistake of looking directly into the glowing eye.

The ground twisted beneath her. The trees and the nearby car contorted. Everything was spinning. The only thing Peggy could think to do in this moment was to hold on tightly to the eye. Everything else was disappearing in flashes of sickly green.


	2. April 19th, 2018

Peggy hit the ground hard. She stayed there for several moments in an attempt to comprehend what had happened. She peeled herself from the ground only to fall back seconds later. The world wouldn’t stop spinning. Peggy could still those green tendrils out of the corner of her eye.

Finally, after several long minutes, Peggy was able to successfully sit up. The world was still a dizzy mess, but her head had cleared enough for her to function. The first thing Peggy noticed was the necklace. It had ended up several feet away from her. Peggy desperately pushed her way towards it. When she grabbed it, the thing glowed orange with some sort of strange design. Peggy pulled her hand away at the burning sensation and the object disappeared.

Peggy had ended up in the middle of a forest. The air was much warmer than the harsh New York winter. Peggy was sitting atop a layer of leaves. Every move she made caused a loud crunching sound. She needed to figure out where she was. She needed to figure out what happened to her.

Carefully, Peggy managed to stumble to her feet. She leaned against the nearest tree, trying to figure out if any of her surroundings were even vaguely similar. She turned her head, noticing a huge mass of buildings obscured by many of the trees. Peggy’s mind was racing as she tried to determine if she should head to the buildings or not. Peggy had no information on if she was even still on Earth or not. Peggy had no clue what that item was. It could easily be an alien item like what Howard and she had tracked down during the war before. Like the Cube had been. Peggy knew no human made object could transport someone quite like this.

The creatures in that building could be friendly or they could easily kill her. The best-case scenario would be if the large series of buildings was abandoned. The only weapon Peggy had was a small pistol. She hadn’t expected something like this to happen in her plans for the day. It should have just been a mundane day of searching through boxes. Peggy took a deep breath and pushed herself off the tree. She stumbled, closing her eyes for a moment. She started to slowly make her way towards the building. It was a giant metal monstrosity. Peggy couldn’t even begin to comprehend the many metal structures. As Peggy approached the structure, she noticed something. There was a giant ‘A’ on the side of the building. Nearly blending in since it was practically the same shade of gray as the rest of the building. It was the same logo that was on the sticky note before.

Peggy stumbled as the world around her began to spin again. She didn’t know what to do. She had trouble even catching her breath.

Finally, she sat down on the ground. She was tucked behind one of the trees near the edge of the forest. Peggy waited and watched. She needed to regain her strength. Whatever the thing in her pocket was, it had certainly taken a lot out of Peggy.

The compound was buzzing with activity. From this distance, Peggy could see people milling around outside. Or at least, the figures she saw looked like people. She wasn’t sure. She wasn’t sure of anything anymore. One moment it’s a peaceful morning and the next she’s here and—good god, there was some sort of aircraft approaching. It was the strangest thing she had ever seen. It was huge, sleek, and a shape that didn’t make sense for planes to be. Sort of like oddly shaped triangles. It was landing behind one the buildings, obscuring it from Peggy’s view.

“Put your hands up,” ordered someone. Peggy looked over her shoulder to see a girl with long blonde hair. The women wore peculiar clothes. The clothes were an all-black, skin tight jumpsuit. Peggy had never seen someone wear something like that before. The women also had some strange objects attached to her waist. There was a gun holster and other compartments that Peggy didn’t recognize.

The women pointed the gun at her. “You are trespassing on Avengers’ property. Put your hands up.”

Peggy slowly raised her hands. The women would approach Peggy, Peggy could shoot her legs out, knocking the women to the ground. Peggy could get the advantage and then run. She wasn’t sure where she would go. She needed to figure out where she was. She needed to see if she was even still on Earth. The trees appeared to be bending sideways.

Then there was a strange noise coming from behind her. Peggy had never heard something quite like it before. The women stood straight up and lowered her weapon. Whatever it was, garnered a lot of respect from the women.

Peggy didn’t look over her shoulder. She could hear the footsteps crunching in the grass. Then the foot steps stopped. Her hands remained in the air. If she was captured and brought to that base, there wasn’t much hope for her. All Peggy had on her was a gun, house key, and Sweet Dreams lipstick.

 “Report,” said the creature from behind her. His voice sounded…artificial.

“Scanners picked up energy readings similar to that of the Tesseract. I was the closest on patrol and I found her close to the centralized location.”

The thing crossed into Peggy’s line of sight. She looked at it. It was some giant metal monstrosity. It was shaped like a man. No man would possess something like that. She was looking at a metal alien. It vaguely reminded her of her dream. Peggy’s eyes darted around the forest. She needed to bolt. She needed to get away from her. She needed her vision to stop turning a sickly shade of green and for the world to stop spinning.

The suit opened, and a man stepped out. He looked absolutely shocked.

“You’re—” he paused, his voice sounding much more real as a man stepped out of the suit. “Peggy Carter.”

“Where am I?” Those were the only words Peggy could think to get out. This man recognized her. He knew her.

The man extended his hand, helping Peggy to her feet. She leaned back to support herself on the tree. The spinning world had slowed down slightly.

“Somewhere you shouldn’t be,” said the man. “My name is Tony. You are at a top security Avengers facility in upstate New York. How did you get here?”

Peggy looked back at those massive buildings. Huge and intricate. She took a steadying breath and pushed herself off the tree and stood up straight. This was bizarre. Peggy wasn’t sure what on earth was happening. Tony reminded her of somebody, but Peggy couldn’t place who it was. She didn’t trust him or the woman. She remained silent.

“Can someone bring a golf cart over here?” Tony asked the air. He then turned to the blonde. “Return to your station.”

The girl took off, running back into the woods. Tony extended his arm to her. Peggy didn’t take it. Tony kept walking.

 

-

 

Peggy sat in the strangest room she had ever seen. Everything was a sleek silver metal or glass. It seemed cold and rather unwelcoming. Tony had taken her to what appeared to be a more secluded section of the facilities. She had seen rooms full of people milling about and working, but it was abandoned here.

Tony milled around the kitchen. Glassware clanging together. Peggy stared down at the countertop. Out of the corner of her eye, Peggy saw Tony looking at a floating image. Peggy could see through the back of it, but the text was backwards, as if she was trying to read text from a mirror. Peggy could make out a picture of herself. The headshot she had from the war. Peggy could make out some sort of percentage. With a flick of his wrist, the images were gone. He was reading up on her.

“So,” Tony said, “are you going to explain how you got here or…?”

She debated on what she could say. Frankly, Peggy was torn on if she should tell him the truth or not. Part of her thought she should lie because she had no idea of the complications of this strange man learning about Howard’s inventions.

Tony puckered his lips after several long moments of Peggy debating what to tell him. He handed her one of the two glasses and grabbed a bottle of whiskey from the cupboard. Tony poured himself a drink and then slid the bottle towards her.

Tony sighed heavily.

Peggy didn’t move. She stared at Tony, not bothering to focus on the bottle.

“Dad always said whiskey was your favorite.”

Peggy still didn’t say anything. She took in Tony’s appearance, he was dressed in a skin-tight shirt and jeans. Something blue glowed in the center of his chest. He looked like he was ready to work on the docks. Tony arched an eyebrow. He expected Peggy to engage or say something. Instead, she waited. She wasn’t concerned about who his father was. She needed to know where she was. Tony had dodged all those questions on the ride over here.

“Facial scans are a 98% match. There’s no DNA on file for you, but I have a strong feeling you’re the real Peggy Carter. You need to tell me how the hell you got here before anybody is wondering where you went.”

“Where is here?” Peggy gritted out.

“I told you. You’re at an Avengers facility in upstate New York. The date is April 19th, 2018.”

Peggy froze. Howard had owned the land. Maybe he had sold it after all of the bad luck he had on this land. Dottie stealing his inventions and Peggy vanishing. She was gone. One moment she had been sitting with Mr. Jarvis and the next she was here.  Peggy tried to remain calm. She tried to not react to that date. She stared at the calendar Tony helpfully pulled up on the partially see-through image. There was no bloody way.

“Let’s start with the most obvious and most impossible,” Tony began. “What’s the last date you remember?”

“The 3rd of December,” Peggy paused, somewhat in disbelief over the whole situation. “1954.”

Tony pressed his lips together. He took another shot of the whiskey. Peggy decided that now was the appropriate time to pour herself a drink.

She pressed her lips together. She needed to remain calm. If she appeared frantic, Tony would have an advantage over her. She couldn’t show any weakness. Not here. They sat in silence as they both mulled everything over. Tony reminded her of somebody. They even looked similar. Howard wouldn’t have made a profit off selling this land.

“Your father is Howard Stark,” Peggy stated.

Tony nodded. He had a weird look on his face. Howard would be over 100 years old. There was no way he would be alive. Peggy didn’t bother to ask. She felt horrible upon this realization. One of her oldest friends was dead. Peggy should be as well if she had made it here the proper way. This was time travel. Something that Bucky read in his shitty science fiction books. She remembered one time, early on in the war, herself, Steve, and the Howling Commandos had sat around a fire in the middle of the night. They all told stories, complete fiction. But that was the purpose. It was simply a way to make the time pass. Bucky had told a story about time travel, of a future without the war.

Peggy closed her eye and took another sip of her drink. Peggy recapped everything to Tony, explaining how she had ended up here. How she had no bloody idea where that damned amulet had gone. It had just disappeared.

“Find anything that fits that description, Friday?” Tony asked the air.

Peggy’s face scrunched up in confusion.

“No sir,” said an Irish woman. Peggy wasn’t sure where the voice came from. It sounded like she was everywhere.

“Friday is artificial intelligence. She’s… like a sentient library.”

Peggy was satisfied with that answer. She was beyond the point of anything upsetting her. She was numb.

Tony looked down, pulling a black rectangle out of his pocket. He tapped the screen a few times and slid it back into his pocket. He looked up at Peggy and gave her a forced smile.

“Happy will pick up dinner and clothes for you. You like pizza? Good. I’ll…I’ll show you a spare bedroom.”

Peggy didn’t move or say anything during Tony’s little spiel. She stood up and followed him down one of the nearest hallways. Tony picked a room at random and peaked inside. He deemed it good enough and ushered Peggy inside.

“If you need anything, ask Friday. She’ll sort it out for you. I’ll be in the labs. I’ll get you home. Don’t worry.”

With that, Tony abruptly closed the door in her face. Peggy spun around, looking at the room. The windows had heavy curtains drawn over it. She moved her way towards the window, peeking outside to see a field below her. There was a strange circular pattern burned into the grass below. She turned around, investigating the rest of the room. It was mostly bare. There were a few generic items scattered around for decoration. There was a huge television in the corner. It looked so different that Peggy almost didn’t recognize it.

There was only one item that showed anyone had inhabited this room prior to her. It was a little leather-bound journal on the desk present in the room. Peggy picked it up. There wasn’t much inside of it. Near the back was an elaborate doodle of unfamiliar buildings. The only other noteworthy thing inside of it were a few pages towards the middle that had been torn out. Peggy returned it to its place.

Peggy sat down on the bed. It was too soft. The concept of time travel wasn’t exactly something impossible to her. She had worked with alien articles during the war. She had no clue what other worlds were capable of. She found herself growing angry at Howard, though. The two of them had worked together studying alien artifacts and the like before. Howard must have noticed and pocketed the amulet before Peggy could turn it in.

The bed seemed to suck her in as she found herself falling backwards into it. Once upon a time, during the war, she remembered sitting around a campfire on her missions with the Howling Commandos. They’d all taken turns telling stories. Some were real events and others were retellings of stories they’ve read. Typically, they would be childhood stories like who Steve had tried to fight in the 3rd grade or what outrageous thing Dugan did during his teenaged years. Occasionally, Bucky would tell a peculiar story. Bucky Barnes had always been a fan of Sci-fi novels. Steve claimed Bucky must have read these stories in their local library. Bucky would talk about time travel and travel between other planets. They were joke stories, extremely light hearted. Stuff that would never happen.

Peggy had faith that this was Earth. The more she thought about it, the more likely it was that time travel was possible. She had traveled 63 years into the future. If Peggy had made it here the natural way, the only way that should be possible, she would be nearly 100 years old. Peggy’s friends would be near that age as well. Nobody lived that long. Good lord, she desperately needed to get back to the proper time. She wasn’t supposed to be here. It was just an accident. A foolish mistake.

Tony was a Stark. If he has even an ounce of talent that Howard had, he would be able to send Peggy home.

She hoped.


	3. April 20th, 2018

Peggy bumbled her way through this new world. She wanted to try and learn this stuff, even if she’d be returning home shortly. She woke up accepting of this place. Tony promised her that he probably only needed a weeks’ worth of research to get it done. Apparently, he had looked into time travel back in 2012. Tony hadn’t made it very far then, but he supposedly had more assets now.

She stared down at this ‘tablet.’ She debated hurling it across the room. She had pressed the ‘a’ key ten bloody times and it kept tying a ‘s’ into the search box instead. Happy had done a poor job showing her how it worked.

“You can search anything you can think of!” Happy had said.

So that’s what Peggy did. She soon found that many search results were blocked. Any research on herself, Howard, or Shield came up blocked. It had just now occurred that Peggy should look up Captain America. Perhaps Howard had finally managed to recover Steve’s body and he got a proper funeral and a burial next to his mother. After everything Steve had went through, he deserved that. Peggy finally managed to hit the right keys.

Blocked. Again.

Peggy managed to gently set the tablet on the glass table. Everything in this section of the building seemed like a prison. It was dark and dreary. There were decorations tastefully scattered across the place in an attempt to cheer the place up. The only picture was of Tony and a red-haired woman. Other than that, the place almost looked abandoned.

The fridge door opened silently when Peggy made her way over. She reached inside and took a piece of leftover pizza. Happy had been kind to her last night. He pulled out the tablet and showed her how it worked as they ate pizza. Tony made a reappearance just long enough to tell her not to worry and she’d be home within the week. Happy and Tony had also both set rules for her to only stay in the common areas and her bedroom. Howard must not have done a good job explaining who she was to Tony.

Peggy set off, chewing on her pizza. She decided to try checking the other rooms in the hallway first. Many of the rooms were covered in thick layers of dust. Some rooms looked like their inhabitants had left in a hurry. Socks and other various items were strewn across the floors. It had been a long time since anybody lived in this hall, though.

There were no actual clues. All the objects that were left behind were mundane. Peggy wondered what had caused these people to leave in such a hurry. She wanted to know how Tony had ended up here.

Peggy left the area, stepping out into the sunlight. She slid on a jacket Happy had brought her. Everything she was given was an attempt to force her to blend into the future. She was dressed similar to how Tony appeared yesterday. She hated this clothing. Everything was uncomfortable and strange.

In the building next door, she could see people milling about through the windows. Nobody really noticed her. She slipped to the side, heading away from the building with people inside. She didn’t want to be caught. She wanted to explore. She wanted to find a tablet where all her searches weren’t blocked.

Peggy found herself walking towards the huge scorch marks in the grass. There was a strange pattern etched into it. It was circular shaped. She wondered what caused this. Peggy bent down to inspect it.

A loud cough caused Peggy to jump.

She hadn’t noticed Tony standing behind her. His arms were crossed over his chest and a huge scowl was etched into his face.

Peggy forced a smile.

“Tomorrow,” Tony began, “we’ve got a meeting with the Secretary of State.”

Peggy debated asking Tony about all of those empty rooms and who once lived there. He didn’t appear to be in a good mood. She would wait and bide her time. Peggy supposed it was a mystery she shouldn’t have to worry about. She kept silent.

However, they never made it to that meeting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to go ahead and do 3 back to back uploads. This chapter is the shortest one out of everything I've written. I didn't feel like I should include it in chapter 2 or in the next chapter. It didn't quite fit them. The rest of the chapters should be about 1,000 words minimum. The next chapter will hopefully be up within the next couple of days. I've had some time off school, so I wanted to upload as much as I could this weekend. 
> 
> If you have any comments/concerns/questions, please leave a comment down below and let me know!


	4. April 21st, 2018

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The goal of this chapter is to somewhat summarize how the battles against Thanos goes with Peggy thrown into the mix (without completely recapping the movie). Any scenes not mentioned, went nearly identical as they did in the movie. The next chapter will be getting into the thick of the plot. 
> 
> Sorry for the mass upload over the past few days! I wanted to post a good amount before I get really busy with college again. I think I have the majority of the fic finished other than one chapter in the middle and the very end.
> 
> Thank you so much to everyone who has left kudos/comments over the past few days! 
> 
> Also, I would like to add that the title 'In The Middle' is from a song by Dodie. If you haven't heard her stuff yet, I would highly recommend it! She makes some really beautiful music.

Peggy stared in horror at the strange creature approaching them. Tony had called him Squidward. The man, Doctor Strange, had the stone. He had promised to take her home. Of course, then Squidward and his companion had appeared. Tony, even with his suit of wonders, was fighting a loosing battle. The strange alien had telekinesis. Peggy watched the cars wiz by her.

She had a plan. Sure, the alien had these bizarre powers but Peggy could tell from the way he fought that he wasn’t omnipotent. She backed out of the fight, dodging the cars and rubble. If the alien got on that ship with the Time Stone, she was trapped here.

Peggy had two weapons. A branch that had fallen off a tree and her pistol that was nearly out of ammo. Peggy’s first plan was to beat the control desk to strand the ship on Earth. If that didn’t work, she would have to shoot it. She just hoped the aliens wouldn’t notice the noise.

She stopped. This ship was like nothing she’d ever seen before. It was huge masses of grated metal. Peggy noticed the chairs at the front of the ship. She dashed forwards, stick in hand.

Peggy smashed the stick against the control panel. It did nothing but break her stick. There were loud, crashing noises. Peggy glanced over her shoulder and saw the creature approaching with Doctor Strange in tow. Peggy had a strong feeling that a bullet would bounce off of the metal. She’d have to catch him off guard, shoot the alien when he wasn’t paying attention and hope he wasn’t bullet proof.

She scaled the walls as quickly as she could.  She wasn’t wearing much in the way of armor, but she was thankful Happy had given her such sturdy boots. Peggy crouched, hiding behind a pole on one of the upper decks. She watched as the ship began taking off. They were quickly zooming away, rising high above the city skyline.

It was then Peggy started to realize she was making a mistake. All of those needles were pointed at Doctor Strange. If she shot Squidward, then she would more than likely be putting the Doctor’s life at risk. Any one of those needles could pierce his eye. She couldn't risk him dying.

She kept her gun loaded in her hands, just in case she was able to find the perfect moment.

A slight noise, an echo. Peggy spun around, aiming her gun. It was two figures. Tony, in his costume, and somebody else. A bloody child. He had ripped his mask off and was breathing heavily. He looked at Peggy and then looked up at Tony.

“God, not you too,” Tony said.

Peggy narrowed her eyes at him. She ignored him and returned her focus back to Squidward and Doctor Strange. The kid knelt down next to her. He extended his hand and said, “hi, I’m Peter.”

Peggy’s eyebrows shot upwards. What the hell was Tony thinking? Why would he allow a literal child on the battlefield? She shot Tony a filthy look.

 

-

 

Peggy had never expected to see a lot of things. She felt like she had taken the future pretty well up until this point. She’d taken meeting Mantis, Drax, and Star-Lord. Peggy had known aliens existed, but dear god, she never imagined to be up in the stars with them. Titan had been in ruins as they arrived, but themselves and Thanos had utterly destroyed it. Chunks of moon had hailed down on them. Reality altered with every step she took. Peggy felt a shard in her side, but she kept moving.

She couldn’t stop.

Thanos had to be defeated. His goal was to wipe away half of the universe. This wasn’t Peggy’s place, she was certain she’d be dead by the year 2018. But she wouldn’t let him win. She wouldn’t let half the universe die, no matter what. Everyone else fighting seemed to agree. They’d nearly had him at one point. Mantis had subdued him. Tony, herself, and Peter were pulling on the glove. It was budging.

Thanos let it slip that he had killed Gamora.

Peggy didn’t know who Gamora was, but they obviously seemed to mean a lot to Star-Lord. She understood his pain. She knew the earth-shattering moment when a loved one died. When Steve had died, she remembered feeling like the world was collapsing around her. She could remember the feeling of her chest burning and how she couldn’t stop the tears no matter how hard she tried. She knew how it felt. She never would have let it affect a mission, though.

Tony tried first, talking him down. Peggy recognized that look on Star-Lord’s face. She lunged forwards, leaving Peter to be the only one pulling on the glove. Peggy tackled Star-Lord to the ground. He seemed stunned for a moment and lay on the ground. Peter made a noise of joy. The glove was almost off.

They nearly saved the universe when Star-Lord disrupted everything.

Revenge was a band-aid solution. It would never stop the pain. Peggy wished she could have conveyed that to Star-Lord. She wished they had more time. Ten more seconds would have cut it. It would have allowed for the glove to be removed. Star-Lord shoved Peggy off in a fit of blind rage. His elbow connected with her face. He was gone, on his feet again.

The first punch Star-Lord threw ruined the spell. Ruined everything.

Peggy wasn’t upset. She didn’t have the time to be. It was a battle again and this time they were severely disadvantaged.

Peggy shot the gun Mantis had handed her before the fight began. It didn’t fire bullets, they were some sort of energy pulse. It didn’t matter to Peggy how it worked, though. They were fighting a losing battle.

Everybody was weaving around each other. Everybody was trying to get a solid hit on him. A blast of something hit Peggy hard. Her vision went black and she was vaguely aware of skidding over chunks of rocks and the moon from earlier. Peggy bit down on her lip to keep from screaming.

For several long, terrifying moments she couldn’t move. Her vision returned. She found herself staring up at the foreign sky. It was strangely beautiful.

A red and blue clad person was flung over her. _Steve?_ No. It was the child.

“Ow,” Peter cried out.

Peggy staggered to her feet. She didn’t see Thanos. She wasn’t sure where he was. Peggy focused her attention on Peter.

“Get up,” she hissed. Peggy desperately tugged him to his feet. She could attempt to rescue him, she could drag him to the relative safety of the ship. Perhaps, Thanos would forget about Peter and he would be the only one of them spared. No. They wouldn’t be that lucky.

Peggy wrapped Peter’s arm around her and she staggered forwards. On the other side of a pile of rocks she saw Thanos. He had a weapon, something sharp. It took Peggy a moment too long to realize that it was embedded in Tony. Peggy ran forwards, dragging Peter with her. She aimed her gun, firing at Thanos with her free hand. She wouldn’t let him kill Tony.

Thanos barely reacted to her shots. She was just a minor annoyance. He couldn’t even be bothered to swat her away as if she was a fly. Peggy froze, Peter leaning heavily against her. She watched in horror as Doctor Strange passed the Time Stone to Thanos.

That had been the only bloody thing they weren’t supposed to do. Under no circumstances should Thanos get that stone.

“You have my respect, Stark,” Thanos said.

Peggy was running towards him. Peter was being dragged along. Even with the stone, Thanos was going to kill Tony.

“I hope they remember you.”

Green tendrils flew out from his glove. Peggy recognized the color. She knew what it was going to do. However, this time, there was a blue color swirling towards Tony as well.

Out of the corner of her eye, Peggy saw Doctor Strange reacting and panicking.

It was as if the world moved in slow motion. Peggy leaped forwards, stumbling over the rocks. Peter fell backwards, but he managed to grasp her hand. Peggy’s other hand made contact with Tony’s shoulder.

The world erupted into blue and green swirls. It reminded her of the Cube, the strange erratic patterns and formations. The blue and green mixed and then separated. It wrapped around the three of them. Peggy felt it picking and burning her skin. She couldn’t find it in herself to panic. A strange sense of calm engulfed her. This was okay.


	5. December 30th, 1954

Peggy lost her grip on them as they fell. She hit the pavement hard. It took her several long moments to push herself off the ground. The world was spinning again. Every part of her body ached. She was certain a chunk of moon was embedded in her side. Peggy’s face was especially sore. She crawled over to the nearest wall and leaned against it. She gasped for air. She was in an alleyway. Every surface was moist. Peggy squinted as her eyes adjusted to the dark light. Across from her was Tony. He lay on the ground in an unnatural position. Peggy crawled towards him. She felt her knee make contact with a puddle of unidentifiable goop.

“Tony,” Peggy gasped out. She shook him. No movement. She reached out for his arm. She needed to know if he had a pulse. Tony’s back arched and he shot upwards. Tony looked around wildly. He then seemed to come to his senses. Peggy’s eyes trailed down to the stab wound on his stomach. Tony lifted his shirt up, he aimed his wrist at the wound. Something sprayed out of it and Peggy watched as the gouge healed. Tony opened his mouth, about to speak, when they heard a loud groan.

There was a dumpster, several feet away. A red mask poked out at them. Peter removed his mask and looked down at Peggy and Tony. He opened his mouth and groaned again.

A light flashed on, blinding the three of them. One of the doors in the alleyway swung open.

“Get out of here,” shouted a man brandishing an umbrella.

Tony’s armor vanished, rolling back into the glowing piece on his chest. Peggy stared up at the man for several long seconds. It was Mr. Price. He owned a bakery that was a few blocks away from her home. She’d stop by every so often for a morning bagel. She stared at him in shock. Perhaps he didn’t recognize her because of the dark lighting. She’d only ever had one or two actual conversations with him. She did however know he had a sign that proudly stated, ‘Open Since 1948.’ He was around the same age as when she left. At least that meant they were sometime after the war. Of course, time travel seemed to be a fickle thing with reasons she would never understand.

Peggy stumbled to her feet. She pulled Tony up with her. Peter was still in the dumpster, but it was better if he stayed in there for a few moments longer since he was still wearing his costume. Peter pushed his way out of the dumpster and fell on the ground. He groaned loudly.

“C’mon, kid,” Tony hissed. Tony motioned for him to get upwards.

Peter stumbled. He stared at Mr. Price in shock and confusion. Tony reached back and grabbed the corner of Peter’s suit. Tony pulled the kid out of the alleyway with him. As they left, Peggy heard Mr. Price mumbling about ‘no good drunks.’

If this was the right bakery, if she wasn’t mistaken if it was the Mr. Price she knew, there should be a newspaper vending machine a block up the road. She steered Peter and Tony in that direction. A surge of relief went over her. This was promising. Peggy leaned Tony against the nearest wall.

“Do you have any extra clothes?” She heard Tony question Peter.

Peggy tuned out the rest of the conversation. She knelt down in front of the small metal box. It took her a moment to make out the day in the corner of the paper.

“December 30th, 1954,” Peggy said.

“What?” Peter shouted, his eyes nearly bulging out of his head. Tony elbowed him. Peter adjusted his volume for his next question. “Why would he send us here? The past? Is that even possible?”

Tony looked like he was in shock. He stared down at his feet. Peggy noticed that he was clutching one of his arms. She’d have to see if he needed medical attention for it. Meanwhile, Peter was quickly peeling off his suit to reveal a pair of clothes that looked like he was very clearly not from the present year. She supposed it was better than his bright red and blue suit.

Peggy reached in the pockets of her jeans. The two objects she had brought to the future were still there. Peggy was relieved. Perhaps things were finally going her way. Her home should be only two blocks west from here. Hopefully, Howard hadn’t changed the locks. She’d most likely been gone for around 2 weeks.

“My apartment is nearby,” Peggy said. “We can go there.”

Peter gave Peggy a strange look. “Your apartment? How do you have an apartment in 1954?”

“Did we not tell him?” Tony asked her. “She’s from 1954. She got ahold of the Time Infinity Stone.”

Peter’s mouth opened and closed in surprise. He was about to ask more questions. Peggy knew it. She rested her hand on her side and felt blood.  The chunk of moon in her was still embedded. She’d have to sew up her own wound. Tony didn’t look like he was in any condition to be stitching up wounds and Peter had hopefully never learned how.

“Wow,” Peter said.

She boosted herself from the ground. Tony seemed to be oriented well enough to walk by now. She turned her flat key over in her hands. She could feel the chill of the night creeping in.

 

 -

 

Her flat was freezing cold. Peggy flicked on the lights. She spun around, slowly taking in her living room. There were pictures on the mantle of the fireplace. They were covered in a thick layer of dust. Everything here was.

Peter gingerly placed his suit on the edge of one of the arm chairs.

“Hey,” Tony said, catching her arm. “I can patch your side up.”

Peggy smiled gratefully at him. She sat down on the couch and Tony knelt to her side. “There’s a medicine box in the cabinet next to the sink in the kitchen.”

Tony shook his head and began working on removing the rock. She’d held it in place during the walk back to the penthouse. It wasn’t in a horrible location to cause damage to her organs and she probably could have pulled it out, but she didn’t want to leave moon rocks out and about.

“They haven’t landed on the moon yet, have they?” Peter asked the air. “That was in 1969.”

Peggy filed that fact away for later. The look of annoyance on Tony’s face probably meant that Peter shouldn’t have told her that. Tony didn’t chide him though, instead he began to gingerly peel up her blouse. He grabbed the same object from earlier and began spraying it on her wound. Peggy watched in shock as it healed in front of her eyes. Peggy watched Tony’s eyes fall on the huge scar on the other side of Peggy’s stomach. She wasn’t in the mood to answer questions on it.

She hadn’t the faintest idea what time it was, but she was exhausted. Tony and Peter looked to be feeling about the same.

“There’s two bedrooms. I believe there’s spare pillows and blankets in the closet that you can use for the couch, Peter.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I hope everyone is enjoying it so far! I'm hoping to upload 1-3 more chapters within the next week. I am completely stuck on chapter 14. It's the chapter that I've been putting off. I feel like it's needed for character development, but it's something I don't' have a lot of experience writing. I also may or may not rewrite the last 11,000 words and completely change the ending...


	6. December 31st, 1954

The morning light streamed in from the wide windows in her apartment. Peggy paused to close the curtains in the living room. Peter was still sleeping. She didn’t want to wake him. Peggy strolled to the kitchen. First, she grabbed an ice pack from the freezer and held it against her aching face. She quietly dug through the fridge and cabinets. There wasn’t much that was still edible that she could serve for breakfast. There was some canned food on one of the top shelves. She could probably get Peter to climb up there. Green beans seemed like a grand breakfast.

Peggy debated talking it over with Tony, but there really only seemed to be one option. She would call Mr. Jarvis, who would then contact Howard. Tony could pull up his research and he could work with his father on how to get back and defeat Thanos.

She opened her address book and flipped open to the Jarvis contact page. She dialed in the number and hesitated. She wondered if Mr. Jarvis would believe her. It was a crazy story. It’d been weeks since he’s seen her. She felt a pang of guilt. The man must have been worried sick given the circumstances. She hit the last number.

The phone rang and rang. Tony walked in, leaning against the door frame. He watched what she was doing.

“Howard Stark residence,” said the familiar voice. “How may I be of assistance?”

“Good morning, Mr. Jarvis. It’s me, Peggy.”

Tony’s face contorted into a look of horror when he heard Jarvis’ name. He didn’t move to hang up the phone or disturb her call. He just seemed… shaken. There was a long hesitation on the other end of the line.

“Ms. Carter?” Jarvis whispered.

 “You won’t believe the week I’ve had, Mr. Jarvis. Are you and Howard in New York?”

Jarvis’ demeanor changed. “Mr. Stark is in Antarctica still. Are you okay, Ms. Carter?”

“Grand. Would you mind stopping by for a moment?”

“I’ll be there within the hour.”

Peggy hung up the phone. She stood up. Tony stared at her for several long minutes. He didn’t speak. She didn’t volunteer any information. Peggy spun around and crossed over to the kitchen counters. She began busying herself with filling up the kettle. She needed a cup of tea. That was most likely the only thing in this kitchen that wasn’t bloody expired. She grabbed an extra cup from the cupboard and offered it to Tony, who merely shook his head in response. Peggy turned the stove on and placed the kettle on top. It took Tony several minutes after that to speak.

“That was a big decision you made,” Tony said, “getting Howard involved with all this.”

Peggy shrugged. She didn’t face him. She watched and waited for the water to boil. The kettle probably could have used a good scrubbing beforehand, but hindsight was 20/20. A little dirt had never bothered her before.

“Howard will be able to get us back,” she promised.

“No. He won’t be getting _us_ back. I’ll be figuring out how to get me and Peter out of this mess. You’re staying here.”

Peggy slowly turned and stared at him. “I’ll be returning as well. Thank you. The two of you couldn’t possibly take Thanos on your own.”

Tony narrowed his eyes. “And the three of us will? This is where you belong. 1950-whatever.”

“It’s not your place to determine my fate. I will be returning and fighting Thanos.”

Tony scoffed at her. He opened his mouth. Peggy knew if Tony was anything similar to Howard, he was about to say something scathing. She was prepared.

“Good morning,” Peter said, cautiously approaching from the living room. “What’s up?”

Peggy and Tony both spun to smile sweetly at him.

“One of my friend’s is coming over. He knows Howard Stark. He’s going to get us back.”

“Don’t use my last name, don’t mention anything about the Starks,” Tony added.

“Sure,” Peter fumbled. “Mr. Tony.”

Tony rolled his eyes and patted Peter on the shoulder. It was moderately awkward to watch. Peggy averted her eyes and took the kettle off the stove. She quickly began preparing her tea. She made Mr. Jarvis a cup as well.

It took far less than a half hour for Mr. Jarvis to arrive. She hoped he hadn’t parked in the street instead of the garage a block down. He was liable for a parking ticket if he went for one of the spots in front of her building.

Peggy opened the door to find a shaken Jarvis on the other end. He took a step inside the apartment. They stared at each other for a few moments. The next thing she knew, Mr. Jarvis was embracing her. The hug lasted for a second. He quickly let go of her and stepped away.

“Ms. Carter, we’ve been so worried. Where on earth have you been?”

Peter stepped in the room. He was nervously cleaning a glass. Mr. Jarvis looked between Peggy and Peter.

“Hello!” Peter said. “We’re from the future. We come in peace.”

“Good job, kid,” Tony sighed. “Have a seat, Jarvis, I’ll explain everything.”

Tony’s metal glove slid down his arm. There were some sparks. He hit the glove with his hand and a holographic image of the Infinity Stones appeared. It appeared to be a recording of the short presentation Dr. Strange and Wong had given. Peggy guided Mr. Jarvis to the couch and helped him sit. It appeared Tony had a flair for the dramatics. Just like Howard. She smiled slightly at the thought.

 

Jarvis seemed shaken after everything. He looked at Peggy and she attempted to give him a reassuring look. The technology Tony and Peter both had seemed to prove that they were from the future and not mad to Jarvis.

Jarvis ran his hands through his hair, “I don’t want Ana involved in this.”

“Of course,” Peggy agreed.

The past few years have been moderately relaxing for the pair. There had been no major crises that risked lives. Everyone’s time had been focused on getting Shield up and running. Peggy’s heart sunk. She’d been gone for 2 weeks. She’d be shocked if she still had any sort of position in Shield. Colonel Philips wasn’t likely to be pleased she was gone without notice for that long.  This didn’t seem like the appropriate time to bring it up. She had plans on returning to the future after all, but they needed money until Tony and Howard were able to find a solution. She wouldn’t rely on Howard to fund her entire life. Her Shield paycheck had never been much, but it allowed her to get by in New York City. She had a little bit of money saved up, but not much.

“Howard is out of town until January 5th. Nobody has access to his workshop while he’s gone. Perhaps we could try Shield’s scientists, but that would be risky.”

“Much too risky. How did they take my absence?” Peggy questioned.

Mr. Jarvis gave her a confident smile. “Mr. Stark felt directly responsible for your disappearance. He was able to petition the counsel for 2 weeks to find you.”

“Really?” Peggy questioned. What luck.

“Yes,” Jarvis said. “I’m afraid you’re nearly out of vacation time. Anyone other than the counsel, myself, Howard, and Agent Sousa were led to believe you were on a top-secret mission.”

Peggy grinned. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as Tony brought up different files. He was reading them and tapping buttons.

“Can you contact Howard and get lab codes?” Tony questioned. “I don’t think we should get Shield involved with this. The less people who know about time travel, the better.”

Mr. Jarvis shook his head. “Mr. Stark makes it very clear he will not be contacted on these trips.”

A long silence. Peter shifted. He hadn’t been able to contribute much to the conversation. The poor child was just trying to do good and ended up slightly over 60 years in the past. Peggy wished he hadn’t made it onto that ship. He would have been much better off if he had stayed on earth.

“He’s looking for Captain America,” Tony stated.

Tony walked off after that. He went to sit on the terrace. Peggy was fairly certain it was snowing outside. The man didn’t even have a jacket. He was still wearing his clothes from yesterday. Captain America seemed to be a sore spot for Tony. Peggy understood why. Howard had been searching for Steve for years by this point. Every few months he would go off on a chase. He desperately wanted to bring Steve home and give him a proper burial. Howard must have continued doing that while Tony was growing up. That must have meant Steve was never found. She felt her heart sink.

Mr. Jarvis seemed relatively confused at Tony’s behavior. He also took it as meaning it was time for him to leave. “I’ll get clothing for Mr. Parker and Mr. Tony. I’ll be back this evening.”


	7. January 1st, 1955

In theory, they had all the time in the world. Tony could whip up the machine to bring them back days before Thanos appeared, but it didn’t feel that way. Everybody was stressed. Tony was trying to tinker, write out equations, but it was difficult when his armor desperately needed repairs and he didn't have the equipment to experiment. They were out of luck until Howard comes back, and Peggy could go into the office. She hoped it would be as simple as Jarvis made it sound to reclaim her job with Shield. It seemed like Agent Sousa had stepped back from the DC branch and did the same things he did in DC at the New York branch. He didn’t seem like he would be bitter at all for Peggy to return to her post. She should probably call him, but it was a holiday weekend. He should be out with friends, not thinking of her.

As of midnight, it was officially January 1st, 1955. Tony, Peter, and she simply listened to the radio broadcast. There was no reason for them to celebrate. The three of them had sat in silence, listening to the cheerful music stream out through her radio. Peter had asked a question about televisions and if Peggy ever planned on purchasing one. She said no. Eventually, Peter started to drift asleep. Tony pulled the blanket up over the kid and Peggy slowly lowered the volume of the radio. Tony had made a comment about the suits Jarvis had brought him and Peter. It was a joke, so small and meaningless that Peggy couldn’t even remember it this morning.

Peggy slowly took a bite out of her rubbery eggs. It seemed that, out of the three of them, none of them could cook very well. There had been a major discussion this morning as to who should cook.  In the end, Peter had been rewarded the privilege to cook this morning. They didn’t set a chore schedule or anything else. If they did that, it would feel like this arrangement was much more permanent than it should be. Mr. Jarvis had cooked lunch for them yesterday and for dinner Peggy had ran down to the corner store while they tried on the clothing Jarvis brought them.

The phone rang, jolting them all out of their thoughts.

Peggy stood up, hurrying across the room to answer it.

“Ms. Carter,” Jarvis said. He seemed stressed. “There were multiple arrests at Steve Roger’s former residence. The police said they found some rather strange objects on them.”

Peggy closed her eyes. Howard had been renting Steve’s apartment ever since the war. When he found Steve, he wanted him to still have a home. The Barnes lived a few blocks away and kept an eye on the home. The only activity they had ever mentioned was a memorial for Steve and Bucky on his front porch. Everybody knew not to break into Captain America’s former home. Nobody was that disrespectful.

“Which station?” Peggy asked.

It was more than likely a handful of drunk men who picked the wrong house. Peggy had no clue what the strange objects meant. She needed to see, perhaps it was something worthwhile. It was more than likely not. She hated that after all these years, she’d still jump through hoops at even the mention of Steve.

 

-

 

“Director Carter with Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division,” Peggy said, flashing her badge at the secretary. “I’m here to look at the strange objects you recently found.”

She had taken Peter and Tony with her. Tony had come to identify the objects to see if they were from the future. Peter was merely there because they both didn’t want to leave him home alone. Peggy was certain Mr. Jarvis would enjoy being on babysitting duty while deciding whether or not to press charges.

The secretary stood up, smiling pleasantly at Peggy. When her eyes landed on Tony and Peter, her smile faded. Mr. Jarvis had done a successful job finding a few different suits for each of them on such short notice. However, Peter’s clothing was a little baggy. It really emphasized how young the boy was. The secretary paged one of the officers to take Peggy back.

The three of them sat in the plastic waiting room chairs. Peter pulled up his collar and looked around nervously. Peggy really wished she hadn’t needed to take him with them. He would have been much better off in the penthouse. She hoped everything worked out quickly for Mr. Jarvis. She planned on sending Peter back with Mr. Jarvis. Perhaps they could get hot chocolate or something on the way back to the Upper West Side. She wasn’t sure how long it would take her and Tony to inspect the items.

Mr. Jarvis and two police officers strolled into the lobby.

“Tony, Peter,” Jarvis said. “Could you please come with me.”

Jarvis had already shot her plan to pieces. She hadn’t exactly discussed it with him, so she couldn’t be upset. It just made the most sense. Peggy narrowed her eyes, belatedly realizing something. Jarvis had a bead of sweat on his eyebrow and was rubbing the fingers on his left hand together. Whatever was in that cell had shaken him.

“I’ll show you the items,” One of the officers said. His name tag read ‘Long.’

Peggy separated from the group and followed him down the hallway. He sat her in a room and left. This one was one of their meeting rooms. She waited for several long minutes. Perhaps, Long was helping with the release of the three men Jarvis had mentioned.

Finally, the officer came in with a box of belongings. He carelessly plopped the box on the desk.

“Mr. Edwin said to turn over all the items to you and he’d deliver them later to the men,” Long said. They both knew this was against protocol.

“I’m sure Mr. Stark gives his thanks,” Peggy responded.

Officer Long grinned. “If he ever wants to come in, say some words of support, I’m sure it would mean the world to the boys.”

She made a show of poking through the items. She wanted the man to think they were worthless. There were a few different items in there. Some were just odds and ends, like a wrist watch and a journal. There was also a wooden box. Peggy peaked inside. It contained a small, silver ring with a worthless gem and a $10 bill. Peggy shut the box.

The police offer pulled out a long, thick metal object. It had a matching object tucked in the bottom of the box. Peggy took it from his hands and inspected it. She lifted it up, allowing the light to reflect on it. The weight and texture of the metal was familiar. It reminded her of Vibranium.

“Most likely just tin,” Peggy said with a shrug. “Thank you for reporting them. It’s much better to be safe than sorry.”

Officer Long nodded. He was appeased with her response.

There was a knock on the door. Tony poked his head in. He looked rather shaken. Tony’s eyes fell on the item in her hand and he bit down on his lip. “We’re all set. Jarvis decided not to press charges. He’s taking them and Pete home now.”

Peggy picked up the box. “I’ll give this box to Mr. Jarvis this evening for him to return, then. I’m pleased to see it was just a misunderstanding.”

The cop looked like he wanted to say something. Peggy smiled at him and tucked everything back inside. Tony and Peggy hurried out of the building. Mr. Jarvis appeared to have left in a rush. He hadn't bothered to spare a few extra moments to wait for Peggy and Tony to leave. This meant that the subway awaited.


	8. January 1st, 1955

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "He turned.  
> Her heart stopped."

“They were teammates,” Tony said suddenly. He was clinging on to the railing so hard that his knuckles were turning white. Peggy was uncertain if Tony was upset over the subway ride or the people who were in that cell. The train jerked. Tony took a steadying breath. A girl across the car rolled her eyes at the sight of him.

“Were?” Peggy questioned.

“Shit happens,” Tony said with a shrug. “I guess they were handling stuff on the…other side. One of my friends had something Thanos wanted.”

Peggy nodded in understanding. She didn’t know Tony’s past. There was no reason for her to. She did know that he was in charge of some sort of elite team called ‘The Avengers.’ Tony had hurriedly inducted Peter and herself to the team while on that ship to Titan. Peggy hadn’t been concerned about it and she didn’t think of it again until now.

The subway car slowed to a halt. Tony grabbed the box from Peggy’s lap and quickly began to walk out of the car. He seemed to calm down when they hit the surface. Peggy looked up at the snow that was hurriedly falling from the sky. She shrugged her coat off and tossed it over the items in the box. She needed to cool down after the humid tunnels anyways. Tony looked like he was about to offer her his suit jacket. She began walking towards her home before he had a chance. Tony trailed after her. Peggy wondered if she should stop and pick up food for everybody. It was nearing dinner time. Making it to Brooklyn and back had been an all-day ordeal.

Tony seemed to be hesitating. He appeared to not want to head home. Peggy couldn’t exactly make that happen, but she could prolong the walk slightly. Peggy stopped at the first street vendor she saw and ordered them both a hot dog. She pulled out the small amount of money she had on her and gave it to the vendor for their food. Tony noticed.

“You don’t have to buy me anything,” Tony said. He was a Stark, he had more money than Peggy could ever imagine having. He shifted uncomfortably. Peggy could tell he hated being without some sort of safety net of money and having to rely on others.

“It’d be rude of me to eat in front of you,” Peggy said.

He took the hotdog she handed him.

They both sat down on a nearby bench as the snow fell down around them.

After a while, when her fingers were growing cold, they began their walk again. The lobby of Peggy’s building was a nice change. There wasn’t a doorman or anything of the like here. Peggy honestly enjoyed the privacy. Peggy’s mostly lived here since 1946 and she’s never learned any of her neighbors’ names. Everybody kept to themselves. It was the complete opposite of how the Griffith was. Peggy could barely recall the last time she saw a neighbor.

When the elevator opened on the top floor, the pair stepped out. Tony stopped. He stared down the hallway. “It’s actually him, Peggy. He’s had DNA tests, photo recognition, everything.”

“What on earth are you talking about, Tony?”

Tony shrugged. He began the trudge down the hallway. Peggy hurriedly followed behind him. She didn’t know what he was talking about. As soon as they made it inside of the apartment, away from any possible nosy neighbors, she would grill him on it.

The door opened. Peter sat on the couch next to a man who was somewhat dressed like he belonged here. The man was passed out on the couch. Another man had a partially shaved head, but Peggy didn’t bother to give him a second glance. In front of her fireplace, stood the third person. He had been inspecting the pictures placed on the mantles. The pictures were of Peggy and her friends. Daniel, Howard, Angie, Mr. Jarvis, and Ana all were in at least one of the photos. They were pictures that Angie had left behind.

He turned.

Her heart stopped.

He was covered in a layer of dirt, he had long, shaggy hair and a beard to match. He wore a strange combat suit with a trench coat haphazardly thrown on to help disguise his clothes. No matter what, she would recognize him anywhere. It had been years since she’d seen him in his post-serum body. She couldn’t rip her eyes away from him. She was vaguely aware of Tony moving past them and setting the box on the table.

“Bruce, Thor, kid,” Tony said. “Let’s go look at the Hudson. Peggy’s got a great view of it.” Tony was ushering Bruce, Thor, and Peter onto her terrace. Mr. Jarvis must have left before Peggy arrived. Tony didn’t even allow them time to grab their coats. She should thank Tony, but she couldn’t find it in herself to speak. She could feel the familiar burn of tears.

Neither of them moved.

“Steve,” Peggy gasped out, finally. “You’re alive.”

Steve was at her side in an instant. He hesitated, staring into Peggy’s eyes. She couldn’t stop the tears from streaming down her face. Steve looked like he was in the same boat. He was supposed to be dead. He was frozen to death in some Hydra plane in the arctic. He shouldn’t have been able to survive that, but he was Steve. Almost 10 years. It had been nearly 10 years since he died. Since she heard his voice cutting out on the radio. Since…

Steve reached towards her face and wiped the tears away with his thumb. He was crying too, his eyes pooling with tears.

“I’m sorry,” Steve said. He sounded the same as she remembered.

Steve wrapped his arms around her in a warm hug. She buried her face in his chest. Neither of them moved. Steve held her and didn’t let go.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everybody who has continued to read the story so far! I'd also like to say thank you to everybody who has commented, subscribed, and/or left kudos! It's really exciting to see that people are enjoying my story! Thank you! 
> 
> I decided to do another double upload today while I had some free time. I'm still hardcore struggling on chapter 14 and it's going to need to be posted soon... However, chapter 15 is probably one of my favorite Steggy scenes in this entire story and I am so excited to post it!


	9. January 1st, 1955

Peggy had ordered a few boxes of pizza for the six of them. She enjoyed the concept of delivery food that had appeared soon after the war ended. With the way the others took getting food brought up to her apartment, it seemed like the convenience lasted through the decades. They had all spread out across the living room as they chewed on their food. The music played and none of them spoke. Peggy wished Mr. Jarvis was here, she could have relaxed slightly if he was. But alas, he had gone out to find clothing for the three newcomers.

Tony and Steve kept glancing at each other. They always appeared upset when they looked at each other, but they didn’t speak about their feelings. Instead, whenever they made eye contact, they would hurriedly look away. Thor and Peter seemed blissfully unaware of the tension between Steve and Tony. Peter happily ate his pizza and would occasionally smile from his position on the floor. Thor hummed along to the radio. Except, Peggy was certain he had never heard this jazz music before. Thor would attempt to follow along with the music, get lost, hum random notes, and then jump back into it. Peggy found herself getting more and more annoyed about it as the minutes ticked on. Finally, there was Bruce. Peggy knew nothing about the silent man. However, he appeared to be growing just as annoyed at Thor as she was. He was squeezing his eyes shut every time Thor messed up the song.

After they had all finished eating, Peggy collected the plates everybody had absentmindedly left on the coffee table. They all muttered some sort of thank you as she grabbed the dishes. Tony pulled out his Iron Man glove and projected his work so far on the holographic screen. Bruce sat up, leaning towards it to read what Tony had come up with so far. Thor kept humming. Peggy fled to the kitchen before she punched him.

It had been a long time since Peggy had washed this many dishes. Angie had moved months ago, and the majority Peggy’s social life had disappeared with her. It seemed like years ago that Peggy, Daniel, Howard, Ana, Angie, Jarvis and occasionally Jack would sit in her living room, talking about nothing and everything at the same time. Everything had abruptly stopped when Angie moved away. Now, things were completely different.

There was a noise. Footsteps. Peggy looked over her shoulder to see Steve approaching. He was still covered in dirt and in his combat suit, but he had ditched the trench coat. Steve’s combat suit looked like it had been drastically updated. He had abandoned the red, white, and blue and instead had a uniform that looked like the stars had been torn off. Rather dramatic. She wondered why he had done that. Steve pursed his lips. Peggy watched as he ran his hand through his hair.

“I’ll wash, you dry?” Steve proposed.

Peggy blinked. She realized, belatedly, that she had been staring.

“Nonsense,” Peggy said. “You look exhausted. You should rest.”

Steve chewed on his lips, hands in his pockets. He looked at the pile of dishes and mugs that needed a wash.

“I’ll dry then,” Steve grabbed the dish towel and positioned himself at the dish rack. He waited patiently. His eyes were trained on the counter in front of him. She appreciated the gesture.

It was just so strange to stand next to Steve and doing something as mundane as washing dishes. He should have been dead. Instead, he was alive and breathing. He acted like he hadn’t seen her since their last conversation on the plane. If it wasn’t for this strange turn of events, they never would have had a reunion. She scrubbed dishes and Steve dried and put them away. Neither spoke. The radio music still played, the upbeat tunes drifting in. Despite that, it still seemed awkward. Both of their movements were jerky and somewhat forced. She was acutely aware of every move Steve made. She couldn’t manage to lose herself in just washing dishes.

Peggy was handing him the last dish. Their fingers brushed. Peggy looked away from him.

“What happened?” Peggy asked softly. She wanted to know everything. She had a million questions that only Steve could answer.

Steve set the mug down. He leaned against the counter. He didn’t move for several long moments.

“Tony said you have a view of the Hudson?” Steve asked, finally.

Peggy nodded and led him to the door in the kitchen that led to her patio. The place was covered in snow. Steve’s eyes fell on the little shed Peggy had in the corner. Inside, contained her workout materials. Steve moved towards the brick railing and leaned against it. The Hudson looked beautiful, especially at this time of night.

“They found me in 2011 and thawed me out. They called it a miracle. It’s been 7 years since for me. The future is…” Steve trailed off, unable to figure out how to describe it.

“I understand,” she said. “I’ve seen it.”

Steve whipped his head around to look at her. His eyes widened. “What?”

Peggy looked up at the night sky. She missed being able to see all of the stars. It was different now. She had learned early on during the war that aliens existed, but she never expected to actually fight with them.

“I stumbled upon the Time Infinity Stone. I fought with Tony and Peter on Titan.”

A weird look flashed across Steve’s face. Steve instinctively reached for his pocket. The door flew open. Light flooded onto the terrace. Peter stood there.

“Mr. Jarvis has a delivery!”

 

-

 

It had sort of just happened. Thor had taken Peter’s place on the couch. Peter now had to sleep on a little cot in the corner of the living room. She felt bad, but he was truly the only one who would fit on it. Bruce had joined Tony in Angie’s old room. The only place with room for Steve to sleep was her room.

Steve had elected to take his shower after everybody else, waiting for the bathroom in the hallway instead of using hers. Peggy sat on her bed and waited. She ran the brush through her hair, over and over. The longer Steve took, the more nervous she became. She still couldn’t believe it was him. It seemed unreal.

The door creaked open. Steve stood in the doorway. Peggy watched him shift and nervously run his hand through his wet hair. Peggy averted her eyes. Steve moved around the room. He folded up his uniform and set it on top, on a spot of empty counter space, next to his box. He took those weird, shield fins and set them on top of his uniform. After this, Steve approached the bed. He picked a pillow off his side of the bed and clutched it to his chest. He waited, staring at Peggy. She stared back.

There were a few moments of silence as they looked at each other. Finally, Steve knelt down to the ground. Peggy leaned over, trying to figure out what on earth he was doing.

“You’re planning to sleep on the floor?” She questioned.

“Yeah.”

Peggy closed her eyes. She breathed in. “You’re welcome to sleep in the bed.”

Steve sat up and looked at her.

“I—I wouldn’t want to step on someone else’s toes.”

Steve never would have lasted in the intelligence community. He most likely thought he was being slick with that phrasing. He was poking around, trying to figure out if she was seeing somebody else. Peggy couldn’t help but sigh. He had probably seen the photo of Daniel and herself on her mantle and jumped to conclusions. She bit down on her lip and narrowed her eyes.

“After all these years, you’re still a bloody fool. There are blankets in the cabinet in the hall if you’re so insistent to sleep on the floor.”

Peggy flipped over with a huff. She flicked her lamp off and pulled the covers over her shoulders. Peggy closed her eyes. Peggy counted in her head to twenty. She felt the other side of her mattress dip down as Steve slid into the bed. She smiled into the darkness.


	10. January 2nd, 1955

The early morning sun poked through her window. The curtain had been pushed aside slightly. Peggy could see Steve, sitting on the windowsill, engulfed by the curtains. It took her a moment too long to figure out what he was doing. Steve was staring out the window and doodling the skyline. She could just see his little journal poking out of the curtain.

Peggy twisted, turning over to figure out what time it was.

“Good morning,” Steve said. She could hear the curtains rustle as he hopped off the ledge.

“Good morning,” Peggy responded.

Neither of them spoke after that.

Peggy pushed herself out of bed, sliding into the bathroom to get ready for the day. She began the process of taking out her pin curls. She could hear Steve moving about her room. Most likely getting ready himself. Peggy wanted to say something to him, she wanted to ask him the coordinates. She could tell Howard, she could bring him home. She didn’t want him to be alone in the future like he is.

Eventually, Steve leaned in the doorway. “Where do you work now?”

“Colonel Phillips, Howard, and I have started a new agency called ‘Shield.’ It has phased out the SSR and filled in the gaps and flaws there once were.”

Steve nodded. Peggy leaned forwards, grabbing her lipstick. She began to apply it. She was vividly aware of Steve watching her every movement.

“Why did you call it ‘Shield?’”

Peggy closed her eyes. Steve had inspired her throughout the years. His death had drastically changed the course of many people’s lives. He was monumental. Over the years, there had grown less and less talk of Steve. He’d gotten superficial military promotions, but that was about it. Peggy, Phillips, and Howard had wanted some way to actually honor him and his values.

Peggy spoke softly, “you.”

Steve blinked.

Peggy squeezed by him. She grabbed her coat and tossed it over her arm. She hurried into the living room. She wasn’t sure why she was fleeing the conversation. She remembered the talk with Howard and Phillips when they decided to call it Shield. The long time it took for them to figure out what to make each letter stand for. The many, many revisions to what Shield stood for. All to honor Steve in one last way. Yet here he was, alive. She felt uncomfortable telling him that.

Thor and Peter were just beginning to stir as she made her way past them. Peter poked his head up and smiled at her. She smiled back. Peter was a good kid. She’d have to find some sort of toy or something for him to do during the days. She wasn’t sure what kids his age liked or how to even attempt to figure that out.

Peggy slid into the kitchen. Tony and Bruce were already awake and working. Paper was scattered everywhere. The two mumbled to each other. However, they both paused when Steve followed Peggy in. Peggy moved to the fridge, trying to extract herself from the situation. Steve and Tony were eyeing each other up. She grabbed eggs from the fridge and a pan. She could make scrambled eggs for everyone. It’d be quick and easy.

Peter trailed in and plopped himself on one of the wooden table’s chairs.

“We’ve got to be careful,” Bruce started. “There’s a lot of different time travel theories out there. We don’t know what’s possible and what’s not.”

“There’s the grandfather paradox,” Peter said.

Peggy nodded. Everybody had heard of that theory. It had been around since before the war. She remembered Bucky would always read those sci-fi novels and talk about the different aspects inside. Aliens and time travels were surprisingly real examples that Bucky had told stories about.

“There’s three most likely theories. One is that everything is predetermined. The future is already based around whatever actions we take. The second is that time will fix itself. There would be small differences in the future, but major events would still happen. The third is that just our being here is destroying the future. Imagine the aftermath if people find out Captain America is still alive. It could cause everyone to stop searching for him and result in him never being found. There are a million different possibilities,” said Bruce.

“We proceed as if every action could negatively affect the future then,” said Peggy.

“Which means we shouldn’t tell Howard about Steve being alive,” Tony said.

Steve pressed his lips together. “So, I’m supposed to stay in hiding the whole time?”

“As long as nobody recognizes you,” Bruce said.

Thor walked in. He made a beeline to the eggs that were just beginning to cook. Thor grabbed a spoon off the counter and scooped the runny, raw eggs out of the pan. Everybody stared. The only noise was the slurping sound Thor made.

“It could use some salt,” Thor said. He held the spoon out as if he was doing some sort of toast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is meant to establish the time travel theory this story is based around. It'll be revealed later on which theory it is and what that means for the Avengers.


	11. January 3rd, 1955

“You can’t disappear for two weeks and then just walk right in like nothing happened,” Daniel snapped at her. He had at least waited for her to make her way into her office before barging in and quietly yelling. He stood at the corner of her desk, glaring and waiting. He wanted answers. Peggy avoided his gaze. She reached upwards to grab one of the files that had been dropped onto her desk in her absence.

“I don’t believe it’s your concern what I did in my vacation time,” Peggy said.

“You were on vacation? Bullshit.”

She opened the file and began pretending to inspect it. She didn’t bother to read it. She just stared at the words, letting them wash over her. She could hear Sousa angrily adjust the way he was standing. Then he plopped down into one of the plush chairs she had facing her desk. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Sousa reach forwards and play with one of the pens that rested on her desk.

Peggy kept reading. She expected Sousa to get fed up with her. She wasn’t having a fight with him, not today. She absolutely hated not telling him what was happening. She couldn't risk getting him involved with this. She didn't want to risk him getting hurt. She was coming into work to simply pay the bills until they were able to get back and defeat Thanos. After that, she would come back and put her heart into this job. It would merely be a week or so of poor performance on her part. She would just approve, organize, and watch from a distance for any tasks that came up. She would just—

“C’mon, Peggy. We’re a team, remember?”

“We are,” Peggy spoke softly. She pushed a piece of hair from her face and closed the file to look him in the eyes. “Therefore, if something was wrong, I would tell you.”

Daniel narrowed his eyes. He leaned forwards. “Jarvis called me when you vanished from that warehouse.”

Peggy’s heart sank. The fact that Jarvis had called Daniel had slipped her mind. She wished she hadn’t forgotten that very, very important detail. She leaned away from the desk, placing her hands in her lap. She rubbed her palm and sighed.

“We merely had a fight, we both spoke some regrettable words. I left, and he must have panicked. I decided to use my vacation time. The 10-year anniversary is coming up, it’s been hard on Howard and myself. I apologize for any stress I might have caused for you, Daniel.”

Daniel shook his head, laughing slightly. He knew better than most how deeply the upcoming date had affected her. He had met Steve. Hell, Steve had saved Daniel’s life during the War. She had thought he would take pity on her and move on.

“I’ll be in my office for when you want to tell me the actual truth,” Daniel spoke sadly.

 

-

 

Peggy knocked twice before unlocking her apartment door. She hadn’t spoken to Daniel for the rest of the day. Even Thompson had commented on the glares and worried looks she received from Daniel. Peggy closed her eyes, taking a deep breath before pushing her door open. Peggy wasn’t sure what she expected to find when she came home from work. It appeared that Tony and Bruce had not moved from their position in the kitchen since she left that morning. Peter was laying on the couch, throwing a ball of yarn in the air. Thor merely stared at the ball, watching it go up and down. Jazz music filled the house.

Steve looked up at her and smiled. He sat in one of her arm chairs. He had been doodling in the sketch book she had seen yesterday in his little box. There wasn’t much to say. Howard would be here in two days Tony and Bruce would head to his lab. Steve would more than likely be forced to hide in her room whenever Howard was around. Thor, Peter, and Steve would need to entertain themselves inside her apartment for another day. Peggy felt moderately guilty that there wasn’t much for them to do.

“Good evening,” Peggy said to them. Everybody gave her some sort of acknowledgement.

Peggy walked into the kitchen. She opened the fridge and was surprised to see it nearly full.

“Jarvis stopped by with food,” Bruce volunteered before he returned to reading.

Peggy wasn’t sure what she would have done without Mr. Jarvis. She took some meat out of the fridge and smiled to herself. Then Steve was there. He pulled canned green beans out of one of her cabinets and popped the it open.

“I can make dinner,” Steve offered. Peggy had a feeling he wouldn’t let her disagree with him. The Howling Commandos had hated her cooking and frankly, she didn’t blame them. Steve had never been vocal about it, he just always cooked when he could. Peggy wasn’t ever bothered by it. She was always relieved to not have to worry about cooking.

Peggy sat at the kitchen table. The table had been covered in paperwork. Everything had been horribly scribbled. Some of it was different theories on what could happen by them being here longer than necessary. There were probabilities of different events. Peggy recognized some, like Steve being found if Howard knew he existed. Others were completely foreign concepts to her. ‘Would I create the Hulk if Steve was found early?’ This was scribbled in the top corner of one of the pages. It seemed like just a musing, nothing they actually put much merit into. She wondered what the Hulk was. Peggy remained silent, however, and let them work.

She inspected everything. There was so much writing, so much clutter, but none of it led anywhere. There were a lot of thoughts written down and ideas on how they could time travel, but no actual substance to these ideas.

“Peggy,” Tony said into the silence. Peggy wasn’t sure when the radio had been turned off. The only noise was the sizzling of the meat. “We need more actual solid information before we start making an actual device.”

“How can I help?” Peggy asked.

Tony smiled weakly at her. “I’ll let you know.”

Steve hesitated. Peggy could see him tense out of the corner of her eye. She still couldn’t believe it was him. She couldn’t believe he had stayed in her bedroom last night. She couldn’t quite manage to think clearly when he was in the room.

“Ant-man,” Steve said, suddenly. Bruce’s head spun towards Steve. He scrunched up his eyebrows. Tony rolled his eyes.

“Ant-man,” Peggy repeated into the silence. She couldn’t stop her voice from rising slightly. What a ridiculous name. She hadn’t the faintest idea if he was talking about someone or if he had seen an ant, crawling on her counter.

“Scott can grow or shrink,” Steve explained quickly. “He talked about the Quantum Realm. Time and space don’t matter there.”

Tony rested his hands in his head and sighed. Steve’s eyes landed on Tony and narrowed. He opened his mouth and closed it.

“Look, Stark,” Steve said. “The Quantum Realm shouldn’t be ruled out. He doesn’t know much about it, but it’s a start.”

“Right,” Tony snapped. “Let’s spend over 10 years researching the Quantum Realm. Then spend another 20 creating tech to get us there for something that won’t even work.”

Steve reached behind him and shut the stove off. He hurried into the other room. Peggy was shocked. She had never seen Steve storm out of a room like that before. She was awfully confused by the situation. Sure, Tony had an attitude, but it shouldn’t have been enough to get Steve so torn up. He had never fled anywhere before.

Tony’s response was an eye roll. He began sinking himself into the paperwork again. Bruce and Peggy exchanged a glance. Bruce seemed rattled by the entire exchange. Peggy ran her hands through her hair. She was about to say something, speak up.

Steve stormed back into the room. He was grasping his suit. Peter and Thor stumbled into the room after him. Their eyes had widened to a surprising size. Steve began ruffling through the suit, attempting to locate something.

“Scott said he got too small and ended up in the Quantum Realm,” Steve snapped. He pulled some sort of small sphere out of his suit pockets and set it in front of Bruce. “That’s got one use. I trust you with it, Bruce.”

“What is that?” Thor questioned.

“Ant-man can use that to make things shrink.”

“Ant-man is the guy that got really big at the airport, right?” Peter questioned. He shoved his hands in his pockets and nodded at the grunt of confirmation he received from Steve.

Peggy paused. She wondered what was happening. She wanted to know who Ant-man was other than just ‘Scott.’ She wanted to know how on earth this Quantum Realm would help them. She wanted to know how Steve had gotten hold of that tech.

Bruce looked at it thoughtfully, turning it over in his hands. Despite how upset Tony had been moments prior, he had calmed and was staring, analyzing the object.

“The Quantum Realm is dangerous,” Steve said. He looked down at the piles of paperwork that led nowhere. “But it’s all we’ve got.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who finally wrote up a draft scene for chapter 14! It's something I haven't tried before, so it'll probably be revised a million times. The ending is nearly finished! I haven't been able to watch Captain Marvel yet, so I'll probably make some edits once I get to watch that, but other than that I've got about 1 and a half chapters left to write. This story will probably be around 30 chapters. I'd say to expect uploads 1-3 times a week. I will be adding character tags as they are introduced into the story. Thank you guys so much for reading!


	12. January 4th, 1955

Peggy had an idea. She knew there were piles of classified SSR files that had never been gone through quite as much as they should have been. There could be a mention to the Quantum Realm somewhere in there. Hell, Howard had possibly been involved and discovered it and she could ask him in person. However, the less he knew, the better.

Everything hadn’t been organized yet. They were in boxes in the office storage room. The task had to be done by a higher clearance agent. Peggy had expected to assign Thompson to it soon. Instead, she sat down, pulling out one of the first few drawers and grabbing the files out. She’d organize them alphabetically, make it appear like she wasn’t doing something strange.

“What are you looking for?” Sousa asked. He propped open the door. Peggy jumped, surprised at the sudden intrusion.

“Just sorting,” Peggy responded. She didn’t look up at him. She hoped he would leave, but she knew better than to expect that from him. She followed her finger along the lines, looking for any sign that could be helpful.

Daniel walked inside, shutting the door to the storage room behind him. It was an upgraded version compared to the rooms from the old SSR building. Peggy and Howard had deemed that mission reports should have a larger emphasis. Mission reports should be easier to find as well. However, they had a system to keep higher ranking files out of the hands of lower level agents. There was an overly complicated key system that Howard had promised to smooth out the kinks for. He had proposed the idea of fingerprint scanners. Peggy had rolled her eyes at him. Daniel shifted, he pulled aside one of the chairs and sat on it. He gazed down at Peggy. He eyed up how she was sprawled across the floor going through files.

“I thought you said you were going to make Thompson sort through files,” Daniel stated.

Peggy forced a smile on her face. “I suppose you caught me. I’m looking for a file that Howard needs.”

“Right,” Daniel shifted. He pulled at the chair at the table and plopped himself into it. “What’s the file on? I’ll help you look.”

 “I appreciate it, Daniel. But I believe there are better things for you to be doing today.”

Daniel’s eyes narrowed, and the slight smile fell off his face. He shot her the dirtiest look. “The same goes for you, Carter. You’ve nearly gotten fired for doing Stark’s dirty work. You need to quit while you’re ahead.”

Peggy focused her eyes on the paper in front of her. She heard the chair Daniel had been sitting in grind angrily across the floor. She heard his footsteps towards the door. There was a pause, Daniel was inspecting her. He wanted her to say something. She supposed she should apologize. He had been there for her through so many events. He merely wanted to support her. However, Peggy couldn’t risk him getting involved. The less people that knew the better. She wanted to protect him.

She bit her lip. She remained silent. She heard the door slam shut as Daniel stormed out of the room. She felt her heart drop. She couldn’t bare to do this to Daniel. They used to be a team.

 

-

 

Peggy supposed she should be a good host and entertain her guests. She should take them somewhere or do something with them. She voiced her concerns to Steve that evening after she got home from work. Tony, Bruce, and Peter had been working all day. Steve was sprawled across her bed and doodling something.

“I always promised you that I’d give you a tour of the city,” Steve spoke softly. “It’s a lot different in the future. Brooklyn isn’t the same.”

Peggy smiled sadly at him. Part of her wanted to reach out, grab at his hand in an attempt to comfort him.

“Do you still live in Brooklyn?” Peggy questioned.

Steve paused. “No. I did for a while, but I had to move on. I stayed in D.C for a few years.”

“Where do you live now?” She knew she was pushing it. Steve clearly didn’t seem like he wanted to talk about it.

“I am a fugitive from the government. My team and I have been on the run for a couple years.”

Peggy blinked.

“Good god, what happened?”

“I was on this team called ‘The Avengers.’ We were privately run, but then somebody on the team made a mistake. It was my fault, I should have caught it. The United Nations stepped in and wanted us to sign our lives away and be under their complete control. I wouldn’t do that. Others agreed. If we were apart of it, we wouldn’t have been able to fight against Thanos until this council had given us approval. The casualties would have been even worse.”

“Tony is an Avenger,” Peggy stated. She didn’t tell him that her and Peter had ended up as part of the team. She, however, hadn’t signed any paperwork.

“I don’t know for how much longer,” Steve responded. “He didn’t wait for approval from the council. He broke the contract.”

“I understand why you didn’t sign,” Peggy said. She wouldn’t have either.

Steve nodded. He went back to his drawing. Peggy watched his hand move over the paper. She had always been so interested in Steve’s drawings. She had never quite understood how he managed to be so skillful at it. She was unable to even draw a straight line, let alone the people Steve was doodling. Steve shifted. He moved the book, so she could get a better look at it.

Peggy moved forwards. She slid next to him on the bed. Steve almost moved his arm to wrap it around her.

“That’s the team,” Steve said. “Nat, Sam, Wanda, and I are the ones that travel. Clint and Scott are on house arrest.”

Peggy nodded thoughtfully. She took the people in. They all looked happy, arms thrown around each other. Peggy recognized Big Ben in the background. She stared at the picture, taking everybody in.

“We could go to Café Reggio,” Steve said after several long moments of silence. “Buck’s family made the trip up there once. Bucky and Rebecca never shut up about it. It shouldn’t be too far of a subway ride from here. Maybe 15 to 20 minutes?”

Peggy nodded thoughtfully. She probably had enough money to cover everybody down there. Jarvis had slipped her $5 to help her feed them until Howard came back. She just didn’t have enough savings to go from feeding just herself to 6 people total.

“It’s nearly 4:30,” Peggy said. “Shall we go tonight?”

 

-

 

She was surprised that Tony and Bruce had actually joined them. It was somewhat of an awkward dinner. They all ate their pasta and sandwiches in silence. Steve eyed up the art work on the walls, as if he was studying it.

Peggy took a bite of her pasta. Bruce’s eyes followed Steve, he opened and closed his mouth. He debated on saying something. In the end, Bruce remained quiet.

“How’s Asgard, Thor?” Steve asked.

“Asgard is destroyed. I do not know if Valkyrie was successful in leading the survivors away from Thanos. Loki is truly dead this time and I lost an eye.”

Bruce nodded seriously. “It’s been a rough few days in space.”

“I’m sorry, Thor,” Steve said. His eyebrows shot up to his forehead. He reached out, patting Thor’s arm for a moment before dropping his hand. He stared at Thor's eyes.

Peggy ate another bite of her pasta.

Perhaps Peggy shouldn’t have taken them out and they should have eaten in silence at her apartment again. At least the radio would have filled the silence. Of course, how much jazz could a person listen to?

“Howard will be home tomorrow,” Peggy said into the silence. “We should start research in his lab after work. Agent Sousa suspects that something is wrong.”

“Where was he anyways?” Peter questioned.

Based off the looks on everybody else’s faces, Peggy knew that Tony, Bruce, and Steve had figured out where Howard had gone. Thor had moved on from the talk of Asgard and was back to shoving his two sandwiches in his mouth.

“A personal trip,” said Peggy. The usual excuse for Howard’s absences. “In the Atlantic.”

“Oh,” said Peter. He connected the dots. Peter’s eyes fell on Steve.

Nobody said anything else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just finished the first draft for the ending for this story! It's looking like this story will be 30 chapters. This may possibly change as I do final edits, but I don't think it will change the actual chapter count. I did also go ahead and make this into a series! I have a lot of different ideas for stuff I want to create that would take place after this story ends.
> 
> I finally got to watch Captain Marvel! The movie was incredible! This story shouldn't contain any spoilers from the actual movie. It will have references taken from all trailers that have been released so far. I will also update character tags and fandoms as they are introduced.


	13. January 5th, 1955

“Look, Peggy, it’s a little ridiculous that you and Jarvis want strangers to work in my lab and that I wouldn’t be allowed to see what they’re working on,” Howard said. He was pacing back and forth in her office.

He looked exhausted. His eyes were bloodshot. His mustache was shaggier than usual.

“Howard,” Peggy said. “It’ll be worth it. It won’t take them any longer than two weeks. They have much of the theoretical work done. You can work in the Shield labs. You’ll have all the assistants you’ll need here. I know you’re always upset over lack of help these days.”

Peggy was lying. They had made practically no progress. Peggy had been watching how frustrated Tony was growing over the past few days.

“What is it, Peg?”

“I don’t know exactly,” Peggy said, quickly. “It’s something that would have the potential to be life changing.”

“You don’t know?” Howard's voice was rising.

“I understand the concepts, Howard,” Peggy said quickly. “It’s something we need.”

“What?” Howard stopped pacing. He crossed his arms over his chest and stared her down.

The door opened without a knock. Howard whirled around to glare at him for interrupting their argument. Peggy stood up from her chair. She placed her hands on her desk.

“Agent Sousa,” she began coldly. “I do not appreciate you entering without knocking. This is a private conversation.”

She watched as a smile formed across Sousa’s face. He stared her down, shaking his head.

“Something’s wrong with her, Stark. She’s hiding something.”

Peggy closed her eyes. She squeezed her hands into fists. Daniel had “snitched” her out. That was a term Tony said last night over Thor telling her Tony had drank the last cup of coffee. Peggy hadn’t even been bothered by the lack of coffee in the morning. She much preferred tea. However, she suspected the majority of Thor’s interactions with humans had been with Americans who were more than a little obsessed with coffee.

“There is nothing wrong,” Peggy snapped. “I have some friends from before the war that are simply in need of some help. The use of Howard’s labs would greatly assist them.”

“C'mon, Carter. One minute, Jarvis is calling me up at half past midnight saying he can’t find her. She appears two weeks later saying she was on a vacation. Yesterday, she was digging through files saying you wanted something. Was that the case, Howard?”

Howard shook his head. “What’s wrong, Peg? We can help.”

“I assure you that nothing is wrong,” Peggy said.

“You and Jarvis are hiding something. Why do those people want to use my lab? Who are they?”

“Oh, so Jarvis is involved with this, too?” Daniel questioned. He was frustrated with her. She hadn’t been giving him much in the way of answers. They had always been a team. Or at least, they used to be a team. She was protecting Daniel, Howard, and the future by not involving them. They were proceeding as if any wrong move could destroy the future. The others’ home.

“Mr. Jarvis isn’t involved with anything. There is nothing wrong.”

Daniel ruffled his hair. He rolled his eyes and threw his hand down. He paced across the room. Howard had leaned up against the wall. He was scowling at her.

“Peggy,” Howard said. “What are they going to use my lab for?”

“Classified. It’s perfectly safe and they’ll be gone within two weeks,” she promised.

“If you change your mind and tell me what they’re working on, they can use my lab.”

Howard left the room. He didn’t bother to close the door behind him. Daniel tilted his head; the corners of his mouth fell downwards.

Daniel took a step forwards, closer to her desk. “You know, Peggy, no matter what happens between us, I’m there for you. You can trust me.”

“I do trust you, Daniel,” Peggy called out as he stormed out of the room and slammed the door shut.

 

 -

 

“Excuse me,” called a woman from behind Peggy.

Peggy had decided she needed the walk home today. The snow fell around her, desperately clinging to her. Peggy had already phoned home to let Tony know about the disaster with securing Howard’s lab. It would be difficult for them to experiment. Even if Howard had relented, he would want to be involved and present at every moment. Neither of them could think of some sort of lie that would allow them to get away with that kind of research. Howard couldn’t find out that time travel was possible. Peggy and Tony had an unspoken understanding that Howard would abuse such a power if he even had the idea that it was possible.

Peggy shoved her hands deeper in her coat pockets. She wished she had brought gloves. She hadn’t realized it was supposed to snow today. The snow was absolutely awful. She didn’t want to break down and take a taxi. She needed the walk home to clear her head. She needed time to think of ideas for how they could disguise the research.

Peggy wasn’t coming up with anything.

“Excuse me,” called the woman, again.

Peggy didn’t look up. She knew better than to stop for every person on the streets.

“My apologies, I have no money on me.” For once today, she wasn’t lying.

She didn’t bother to look at the woman. She was too lost in her thoughts. Perhaps, they could tell Howard that it was all theoretical work related to something absurd like giving humans the power of flight. If they chose something impossible, maybe he wouldn’t be concerned with it. Maybe he would just think that was impossible and brush it off. Maybe he would assume that Peggy was pitying these people. She hoped Mr. Jarvis would wear him down over the evening. Maybe she wouldn’t even have to lie to Howard again. Maybe…

Peggy closed her eyes for a moment and shook her head. She veered off to the right, not willing to go home quite yet.

The snow was falling faster now. She took a different way home from work. She had stopped by a bakery and stared at the desserts in the window for several minutes. Eventually, she ended up walking mindlessly up and down the streets.

She found herself standing in front of a building she hadn’t seen in years. It loomed over her. It was Ms. Frye’s building—the one Angie had once convinced her to move into. Peggy stared up at it. She watched a woman enter the building. Peggy pitied the girl and what she must have to go through living under Ms. Frye’s care.

The snow gathered on Peggy’s collar. It blurred her vision. She took another bite of her pastry. This building was a stark reminder of how much things could change over a short period of time. She had moved into this building with Steve’s death ever present in the back of her mind. She had hidden his blood in her bedroom wall. Now he was alive. She still couldn’t manage to comprehend sleeping next to him every night.

As soon as they were able to figure this out, he would be gone.

Perhaps, that is what Peggy needs.

Him being alive was a secret she would have to carry with her for the rest of her life. She couldn’t ever tell Howard. During the reunions, she would have to nod along and let the others mourn. If she told, it would risk Steve never being found. At least she knew. At least she wouldn’t have to live the rest of her life mourning him. After she returns from helping them fight Thanos, she would go back towards building Shield up. She would honor Steve and the rest of those Avengers in some sort of way.

Peggy shook her head and set off back towards her home.

 

-

 

Peggy knocked carefully in the rhythm they had determined. There wasn’t a response. She couldn’t have been too late, only around 30 minutes later than she usually was.

Slowly, she opened the door.                                                                                    

Thor was snoring loudly on the couch. She watched his chest rise and fall. Tony sat on the floor, propped up against the couch. He was sleeping too. His mouth hung open to the point of him being able to swallow a fly. Peggy had a feeling this was the first time he slept in days. Bruce was sleeping too, head nestled in a pile of books. Somebody must have gone down to the nearest library today to retrieve them.

Peter poked his head out of the doorway to her bedroom. He smiled and waved at her. Peggy quietly locked the door behind her and followed him into her room. He shouldn’t have been in that room. There was no reason for him to be there. Hell, she had dangerous weapons hidden in there that he shouldn’t get into. Peggy knows how curious teenage boys can be. She had a brother once.

Steve was sitting on Peggy’s bed. He was doodling again. Except this time, it wasn’t his usual drawings. It was some sort of design.

“If we could modify the pocket watch we could use it to set the time we want to be at. We would need something to be able to fold time over, though,” Peter was musing.

Steve was writing everything down. He had the pocket watch drawn on the paper and was writing down the schematics of it.

“In 1947,” Peggy said. “There was something called ‘Zero Matter’ that I had experience with. It is a terribly risky substance, but it also opened holes in the universe. Perhaps if we were able to gain access to it, we would be able to meld it and use it as some sort of way to create a portal to the future.”

Peter’s forehead crinkled. “How do we get it?”

“I know a man who is unfortunately funded by Howard. I could contact him and see if he’ll send us a shipment of it under the table,” Peggy said. The Zero Matter could actually do some good. She knew Dr. Wilkes had practically given up on his research on it. But it was possible that Tony or Bruce would be able to take his research and be able to use it.

Peggy closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead. “What happened with that object that Steve gave to Tony and Bruce?”

“We’re stuck. We don’t have the tech to analyze it without risking destroying it. They've done some research on the Quantum Realm, though.”

Steve pressed his lips together.

“Kid?” Tony shouted from the other room. His voice shook. Peggy assumed he was disoriented and confused to as where Peter had vanished. Peter forced a smile at Peggy and Steve and darted outside to assure Tony that he was okay.

Peggy sat down on the bed. She slid off her shoes and allowed herself to fall backwards. Her head rested against Steve’s thigh. For a moment, Steve ran his hand through her hair. Peggy closed her eyes, only to feel Steve jerk his hand away. Peggy suppressed a sigh.

“Let’s go out,” Steve spoke suddenly. “I can get us into the Stork Club on Friday night.”

Peggy couldn’t smother the smile that quickly spread across her face. She didn’t want to open her eyes and look at what a nervous wreck Steve probably was right now. She waited to reply for a moment. Just to see what he would do. During the war, Steve would have spoken into the silence. He would have nervously spoke about how she didn’t have to go if she didn’t want to. Instead, Steve remained silent. He waited patiently.

“Of course,” Peggy said. “I would love to.”

Peggy felt Steve’s leg muscle relax. She hadn’t realized how tense he was. Peggy opened her eyes to look up at Steve and see the biggest grin on his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: I was writing this part of the story (chapters 9-13) really inconsistently (aka why it took me over a year to finish this) so I was struggling to get back into writing it whenever I randomly picked it up again. I actually originally had the unnamed woman in this chapter be Natasha (with Clint close behind) and had written around 500 words before I realized that was way too convenient for everybody. How would Natasha and Clint know where to find them? There were way too many plot holes if I had left that as the original scene. I like the way this turned out a lot more. Besides, if it had actually been Nat and Clint, Steve and Peggy wouldn't have gotten their date (chapter 15!!).


	14. January 6th, 1955

Peggy leaned up against the wall near her fireplace. Steve sat next to her. They were attempting to sort through the stacks of papers full of formulas and theories that Tony and Bruce had come up with. Steve lifted one up, squinting at it. Peggy leaned over his shoulder to get a better look. It wasn’t anything, just large, uneven circles scribbled all over the paper. Steve set that piece of paper aside.

“Kid,” Tony spoke suddenly. His head snapped up from the paper he had been staring at for the last hour. “Change the station. I can’t handle jazz anymore.”

Peter stood up. He carefully dodged the piles of paper that were scattered across her living room floor. He reached towards the radio, changing the station. He flicked through many stations filled with monotonous music. He paused on one station, the words filled the entire room.

“It is now time for the Captain America Adventure Time Program! This is brought to you by Roxxon Motor Oil in honor of the 10th anniversary of Captain America’s tragic passing!”

Everybody’s heads snapped towards the radio.

“Change the bloody station,” Peggy snapped.

She returned to trying to sort through paper and create some sort of order. Steve stopped sorting, staring at the radio. Peter lowered his hand slowly and took a step away from the radio. Nobody else went back to what they were doing, though. Everybody seemed entranced by the program.

“It’s time for the origin of America’s number one hero! Turned from a shrimp to the hero by use of the special, secret Super Soldier Serum! Captain America made the decision to tour the world, building support and morale for our troops!” The narrator spoke lively.

Peggy had almost erased the voice from her mind. It had been nearly a year since her friends and she had sat around, making fun of this show. Peggy was shocked that it had continued. Daniel had mentioned to her once over dinner a handful of months ago that they revived the show and Captain America had been rescued. He was now fighting against Russia.

“We love you Captain America!” A chorus of women’s voices shouted out.

Steve stiffened. His eyes widened. Peggy heard Tony snort. She kept her eyes on Steve.

“But duty called for Captain America! He was needed on a rescue mission! To save the lives of hundreds of soldiers, including that of his best friend Jimmy Karnes!”

The smile fell off Tony’s face at the reference to the fictional counterpart of Sergeant Barnes. Steve’s jaw dropped. He promptly closed it. Peggy watched a blood vessel bulge out of his head. She had always wondered how Steve would react to this stupid show.

“Oh, Captain America!” Shouted Betty Carver. “Please help!”

Betty Carver was saying something else, pleading for Captain America to help. Steve stood up, crossing the room and changing it to some classical music station.

“Why does this exist?” Steve said, turning to Peggy.

“To honor the brave sacrifices of Captain America,” Peggy said, “and to provide evening entertainment for thousands of Americans.”

Steve shook his head, gnawing on his lower lip. Peter stared at Steve with wide eyes.

“What actually happened?” Peter asked. “Ned took AP history last semester, he made the story sound similar to that.”

“I was in Europe, performing for the remains of the 107. I didn’t know that until Peggy told me. That was Bucky’s infantry. Bucky and the majority of the 107th had been captured by Hydra. Peggy risked her job getting me to Austria—”

“Fondue,” Peggy spoke softly. Steve paused. He threw back his head and laughed. He ran a hand through his hair, smirking at her.

Tony had stopped paying attention. He stared down at the papers in front of him. He groaned, rubbing his hands over his face.

 “Perhaps,” Peggy began, forgetting the story at hand. “It’s time you and Dr. Banner take a break.”

Bruce hesitated. He set down his book and stared at her. He gnawed on his lip.

“She’s right, Tony,” Bruce said. They had been working nonstop on trying to get them home. Peggy had looked at some of the design schematics. They had an idea of a machine that they could create. It looked like a giant metal box.

“So, we should stare at the wall for 3 hours?” Tony didn’t look up from his paper. “Or listen to Cap’s stories that my father's already told a million times?”

Thor stood up. He flicked the radio off. Peter took a step back, staring up at Thor.

“On Asgard during rests between battles, we would tell stories by the fire.”

Thor moved again, sitting himself right in front of the fire place. Steve seemed curious about the stories, he actually turned to face Thor. Peter plopped down next to him. Bruce quickly followed.

Thor closed his eyes. He began to recite a story. “Entropy, Infinity, Eternity, and Death are the Cosmic Entities that created our universe, our home, and the Infinity Stones. Eternity controls our reality. All was created by Eternity. His son was Entropy, whose goal was to destroy all that was created. A constant struggle between them. Infinity wants the universe to expand. She never wants the life to end. She wants to prevent death entirely. Then there is Death. Death desires balance. Life cannot expand infinitely. Somebody must keep the world balanced while the other Cosmic Entities battle.”

Tony’s eyebrows were raised to the point of touching his hairline. He wasn’t impressed with the story. Thor scrunched up his face, trying to remember the next part of the story.

“There was once a Valkyrie,” Thor said, beginning the next part of the story. “A lone warrior tasked with saving the universe from the dangerous Infinity Stones. She needed to be quiet, fast, efficient, and rescue the Infinity Stones from the clutches of the Entropy. The King of Asgard said she could not take traveling companions as it was too dangerous and there were not enough warriors to spare. She was foolish, blinded by a desire of love and companionship. The Valkyrie snuck two warriors with her. She took her closest friend and her lover on this journey.  Together they created a plan to reclaim the stones.”

Thor paused. He scrunched up his face, trying to recall the next bit of the story. Peter leaned forwards, he was the most invested in whatever happened next. Bruce and Steve also seemed to be listening intensely. Tony was slumped over, appearing to half asleep. Frankly, Peggy didn’t particularly care about the story. She hadn’t listened to mythical stories since she was a child. She had never seen a point in them. They were simply meant to pass time. Angie, on the other hand, absolutely adored fictional stories. She would have loved hearing Thor’s story.

“The three searched for the Time Stone first. However, Entropy was a step ahead of them. He waited for them on the planet that housed the Time Stone. He was in possession of 5 of the 6 stones. He used the Time Stone on her closest friend, aging him until he only had minutes left to live. The Valkyrie and her lover stayed with their friend until his death. Entropy fled in search of the Soul Stone.”

Thor had dramatically waved his hands during the story, leaning forwards and back to help build emotion. “The two women made it to the planet that housed the Soul Stone moments after Entropy gained control. Entropy tore the lover’s soul out of her body, dooming her to eternity trapped inside the Soul Stone. Valkyrie was alone, now. She faced the biggest threat of her life. A Cosmic Entity who had finally achieved their goal of annihilation through the collection of the Infinity Stones.”

“So, this story is what inspired Thanos?” Tony sounded unamused. He spoke with his eyes closed.

Thor narrowed his eyes at Tony and shook his head. “Valkyrie was at a loss, without hope. A new companion appeared, emerging from the shadows. She had skin the same color as bone, thinly stretched across her face. The woman’s eyes narrowed. She greeted Entropy like one would a sibling. She turned to Valkyrie, making a deal. No one truly knows what this deal entailed. However, it allowed her to stop Entropy. A deal with death is something one should not take lightly. As a thank you, Lady Death freed the Valkyrie’s lover from the Soul Stone. Together, the pair returned to Asgard, expecting a punishment. Valkyrie told the king that she could ‘no longer be a warrior for she had betrayed the throne by making a deal with death.’ However, all of warriors of Asgard came to Valkyrie and her lover’s defense. Instead of being exiled for disobeying his orders, the King thanked her. He created the Valkyries. They were an elite legend. When my father was crowned king, he worked with them. The Valkyries were given two duties. Their first, and most important, duty was to protect the throne. The second is that they would guide all those who died in battle to Valhalla. They were allowed to do this by the mysterious deal that the Valkyrie had made with Lady Death.”

 “Is that really how the Valkyries started, Thor?” Bruce asked. “Valkyrie never once mentioned that.”

Thor laughed. “It’s only a story.”


	15. January 7th, 1955

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "They were off to the Stork Club.
> 
> 10 years late."

She had her hair done up in curls. Red lipstick carefully applied. A red dress to match. A moment that she had once dreamed about, a moment that she had nightmares about after his death, a moment that was finally coming true. She closed her eyes and then opened them. Peggy inspected herself in the mirror once last time.

Steve had chosen to get ready in her room before she got home from work. He waited outside in the living room. Some upbeat jazz music filled the apartment, drifting in under her door from the living room. Tony hated this music. He moaned and groaned about it constantly. If he had the time, he would make an 'aux' cable and Peggy could listen to “great future music.” Steve had already told her about the music Tony likes. Peggy wasn’t sure if she saw the appeal of it.

When she exited the bedroom, Steve stood up.

A smile quickly spread across Steve’s face. He extended his hand to her. She stepped forwards, taking it. The others were suspiciously quiet.  They had vacated the living room. Presumably doing work in the kitchen. Peggy ran a hand through her hair and smiled back at Steve.

He fumbled for a moment, reaching in his pocket to pull out the cell phone. With the way, Peter talked about his, she figured everybody’s phone had died.

“Peter,” Steve called out.

Peter poked his head around the kitchen door frame. He contrasted their formal wear with the t-shirt that he had brought with him from the future casually thrown. He wordlessly took the phone, looked at the screen and began taking pictures of them.

Then they were off.

To the Stork Club.

10 years late.

 

The doorman eyed up Steve’s beard. He was about to say something when Steve flashed the card up at him. Peggy knew without looking that it said ‘Stark’ on it. After that, they passed through the entryway. Peggy had visited here once, right after the war. She had sat at the bar all night while she drank. She had missed the date she was supposed to see Steve here. She had work to do at the time, she couldn’t stop. So instead, she came as soon as the war ended. Peggy wasn’t sure if she had expected Steve to walk through those doors at the time, but no matter what she had waited for him. Eventually, Howard showed up and whisked her back to whatever shitty apartment she had been staying in.

Peggy stared into the room with an entirely different perspective. It wasn’t the same dark walls and band that she remembered. Everything seemed much more upbeat. Women were laughing. A camera flash was going off constantly at the tables of anyone who could even remotely be considered a celebrity. If they had kept their original date and Steve hadn't died, they would have been in those people’s place, everybody would have wanted to get a glimpse of Captain America. Peggy was almost thankful that wasn’t the case now.

Steve had his arm wrapped around her waist. He kept her close to his side. Peggy felt his hand on her waist, warming her skin through her dress. Steve was looking around in awe. The band was playing a lively piece of music. She could see the dance floor and couples moving about. She slipped out from Steve’s grasp and grabbed his hand. She carefully laced her way through the crowds, and they found their own little spot on the dance floor.   

She couldn’t take her eyes off of Steve. After all this time. Finally.

 

Eventually, when Peggy was beginning to get exhausted from all of this dancing, a slow dance came on. Steve wrapped his hands around her waist in a way that was nontraditional. Even dancing in the future must have changed. Steve removed his hand from her waist, guiding hers to drape around his neck.

He stepped towards her. Peggy stepped backwards. A basic waltz.

“You even learned how to slow dance,” Peggy murmured. She rested her head against his chest. They were entirely too forward. She was certain people were staring at them. She didn’t care anymore, though. She just wanted her moment with Steve.

Steve’s arms wrapped around her tighter. “Yeah. I picked up a thing or two in the future.”

A few moments passed. Steve stepped backwards, Peggy stepped forwards. They swayed with the music.

“I did miss you,” Peggy said, closing her eyes.

“I missed you too, Peggy,” Steve said. “I wish we had this years ago.”

Peggy pulled away to look up at him. There were tears in his eyes. He quickly tried to blink them away. She moved her hand, slowly reaching up to touch his face, and drew her finger across his jaw.

“You’ve always had a habit of being late, it seems,” she joked in an attempt to lighten the mood.

As Steve gave a startled laugh, the music changed, morphing into some upbeat song again.

Peggy pulled away. She needed a break for a few moments. Steve wordlessly understood. He clung to her hand as they made their way across the dance floor and into the seating lounge.

“Peggy Carter!” Shouted a voice. Any other time, Peggy would have been excited to hear that voice.

Steve looked at her. “Do I need to hide?”

Peggy shook her head. Of course, by that point it was too late. Angie had already seen them and was hurrying over. She wrapped her arms around Peggy and pulled her into a big hug. Angie looked Steve up and down, inspecting him.

“You with Peggy?” She asked. The corner of her lip turned upwards. Angie was staring at the beard. Peggy was glad that Steve at least trimmed it to make it look a little neater.

“Yeah,” Steve said. Very eloquently.

“Angie Martinelli,” she said, shoving her hand at Steve.

“S—Grant,” Steve said quickly.

“You got a last name, Grant?” Angie questioned. She wouldn’t take her eyes off that beard.

Steve forced a smile on his face. Peggy could see the wheels turning in Steve’s head as he quickly tried to determine a fake last name to use. The smile was slowly fading from Angie’s face.

“Barnes,” Steve said. “Grant Barnes.”

Angie eyed him up. She glanced at Peggy, in some attempt to figure out Steve’s bizarre behavior. Peggy couldn’t keep from grinning at the stupidity of Steve’s name choice. He would never make it in the undercover agent world, that was for sure.

“Well, Peggy,” Angie said. “You and _Grant_ should come have some drinks with me ‘n Marilyn. We’re at table 50.”

With that, Angie spun on her heel and bounced off. Peggy waited until Angie was a safe distance away before she snorted.

“Grant Barnes?” Peggy laughed.

“I panicked,” Steve said, rubbing the back of his neck.

“That would be like me using Elizabeth Stark as a fake name,” Peggy couldn’t wipe the grin off of her face. What a bizarre name choice. Had he never used an alias before? Steve nodded his head in agreement with her.

“Are we getting drinks with Angie and Marilyn?” Steve asked bluntly. He was attempting to change the subject.

Peggy shrugged. She was torn on the whole affair. If she didn’t go with Angie, it would be considered a major red flag by Angie who would more than likely tell Daniel.

“Perhaps just drinks,” Peggy said. “If we don’t, she’ll raise concerns with a coworker who already believes something is wrong.”

Steve nodded. He didn’t seem upset about having to take a break from dancing. He wrapped his hand around Peggy’s and off they went to find this table 50 that Angie was talking about. The tables in the Stork Club were packed in the room. Everybody was laughing and talking. Nobody payed any attention to Steve and Peggy. She liked it better that way.

Angie caught sight of them and raised her hand and waved at them from across the room. The table had a high velvet back and there was an attendant nearby watching them. Peggy recognized Marilyn as being the woman Angie had spoken about occasionally. Angie had appeared in Marilyn's most recent film.

“Angie is a Broadway singer turned film star. She’s becoming quite famous these days,” Peggy hissed under her breath as they got closer. Steve squeezed her hand.

Peggy slid into the leather booth and Steve followed her lead. Marilyn smiled sweetly at Peggy. They had met a couple of times in the past, thanks to Angie, but they had never spoken much. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Steve’s eyebrows raise slightly at the sight of Marilyn.

“So,” Angie leaned forwards, she rested her head against her hand on the table and took a sip of her drink. “You and Peggy meet working at the phone company?”

Peggy held her breath in. She wasn’t sure how Steve planned on lying. She knew he was a horrible liar. She desperately hoped that Steve was at least somehow convincing.

“No. We’ve known each other since the war but we lost touch.”

Peggy was impressed. He knew to stick as close to the truth as possible. She wondered who taught him that.

“That reminds me, your name is kinda similar to that Howling Commando guy.”

Steve, very dramatically, squashed up his forehead and stared at Angie. “The sharpshooter? No relation, unfortunately.”

Angie chewed on her lip for a few moments. Marilyn raised her hand, signaling the waitress to come over. Peggy quickly ordered a drink. The waitress smiled sweetly at the four of them and hurried away.

“Did you know I saw Captain America once at a USO show?” Angie said into the silence. His death anniversary was weighing on everybody’s minds. There had been a tribute set up a few blocks away for him. That must have been why Angie brought it up. Or she noticed that ‘Grant’ looked a lot like Steve Rogers.  “Looking back, he couldn’t act worth a cent. But boy did everybody love him.”

“You act like you didn’t,” Marilyn laughed. Marilyn ran a hand through her blonde hair.

“You could eat him up with a spoon,” Angie responded happily.

The waitress came back. Peggy quickly took the drink placed in front of her and took a sip. Marilyn placed a bill on the table and waved Peggy off before she could say anything. Steve looked down at Peggy’s drink for several long moments. He seemed stiffer than usual. Captain America was being constantly brought up because of the 10-year anniversary of his death coming up. The newspapers had been highly publishing it and Howard’s trips to try and find Steve during the past week. Steve’s return had been poorly timed.

“That’s true,” Steve said, agreeing with Angie. “He didn’t look comfortable being on stage.”

“It can be a lot of pressure sometimes,” Marilyn chimed in. “I understand how he felt.”

Angie shrugged. “What about you, Grant? What do you do?”

“I’m an illustrator,” Steve responded. Peggy was surprised he had that lie down so easily.

Peggy looked at him and smiled reassuringly. Steve grinned back. Angie eyed them up.

“I had a cousin who was an artist. Her ma always told her not to make a career out of it. But Sarah did it anyways. Sarah kept at it for a good year or two. Longest she’s focused on anything. She ended up quitting art and becoming a secretary. Her husband made her,” Angie rolled her eyes as she spoke.

Steve nodded along to the story. He seemed to be at a loss on what he should respond.

“How has the movie industry been going, Angie?” Peggy questioned to try and distract her from Steve. “I hadn’t realized you were back in New York City. You should have called me.”

“I did,” Angie said as the smile slowly faded off her face. “You never answered.”

Peggy took another sip of her drink. “My apologies.”

 “Yeah. Daniel was worried sick about ya. He wouldn’t say what happened though.”

The waitress stopped by again. She was extremely attentive to this table. Steve smiled and said his thanks as the waitress handed him a cup of water.

“I just needed to clear my mind. I went on a vacation for a little while. You know it’s been hard on me.”

Angie seemed to accept that answer. “When do the Commandos fly in?”

Peggy’s eyebrows shot up to her forehead.  “Excuse me?”

“Daniel didn’t mention it being a surprise! They were coming in because of the anniversary.” Angie’s hand flew to cover her mouth.

“No,” Peggy pursed her lips. “Nobody once mentioned it to me. Did Daniel happen to mention when?”

Angie shrugged. She didn’t seem to be concerned about it. She reached into her purse and grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and began to scribble something on it. Angie slid it across table.

“Next Saturday. There’s my direct line. You should call me sometime, English.”

Peggy glanced over at Steve. He sat up straighter after the mention of the Commandos. He was squeezing Peggy’s hand a tad too hard. She forced a smile onto her face and took the paper from Angie. Marilyn waved at the pair. Peggy was quickly scooting out of the booth, pushing Steve out with her.

Steve and Peggy were lacing there way through the club. Peggy glanced up at the nearest clock and realized it was already nearing 10. Steve waved his hand up as they approached the bar.

“Whisky?” Steve asked.

Peggy nodded. She leaned her head against Steve’s chest. She was beginning to get a headache. Since Angie had seen her, she would most definitely be giving a report to Daniel. The pair chatted at least once a week. Most likely more given that Daniel downplayed the whole ordeal when talking about it with her and Thompson one-night months ago. Peggy closed her eyes and only moved when she felt Steve move to reach out and grab her drink from the bartender.

“There are seats over there,” Steve said. He jerked his head to one of the nearby tables. It was small, clearly meant for two people and not nearly as fancy as where Angie and her friend had sat.

Steve played with the white tablecloth and did everything not to make eye contact.

“The Commandos coming certainly make this a lot more difficult,” Peggy said into the silence. They needed to get them out of here before the Commandos show up.

Steve nodded in agreement. Peggy sighed.

“Do you want to head back?” Steve asked. Peggy took in how Steve kept himself from making any facial expressions. He kept his body purposely movement free to hide any bias.

“Do you?” Peggy shot back. Steve shook his head and forced a little smile on his face. He had that puppy dog look. Barnes had always secretly complained about it.

Peggy stood up. Forgetting her drink on the table. She extended her hand to Steve, looking him dead in the eye. She saw the way he lit up. A huge smile spread across his face. He ran a hand through his slicked back hair. Peggy vaguely wondered what Angie must have thought of him. He looked very peculiar in this day and age with that bushy beard.

They stepped onto the dance floor. Couples moved around them. Some laughed, and others hummed along to the music. Steve wrapped his arms around her as the next song, a slower one, played.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The date! Finally! And Angie! I've been super excited to post this. I love Steggy fluff and I'm going to finally start writing more once this semester calms down.   
> If you're interested in more about the Stork Club, here is the website I used for the majority of my research: http://storkclub.com/stork-club-story/  
> Thank you so much for reading! If you have any questions/comments/concerns please leave a comment down below and let me know!


	16. January 8th, 1955

Peggy woke the next morning. The sun shone in through the thick curtains that had been hastily closed night. She moved to sit on the edge of the bed. The curtains were some awful floral pattern, like most cheap motels. Steve was lying next to her. Her movement was enough to wake him. He reached out, lightly wrapping his hand around her wrist. Peggy didn’t get out of the bed. She didn’t want this date to end. She stared at Steve. He had this droopy grin on his face. He was still drowsy. His hair was sticking out in all directions.

“Good morning,” Steve spoke softly.

“Good morning, darling,” Peggy responded. She had never called him that to his face before. She wasn’t completely sure how he would react to it. Steve merely blinked at the term. He repeated it softly, mulling it over. The corner of his lip twitched upwards.

Instead of getting out of bed, she laid back down. Steve wrapped one of his arms around her and pulled her closer. Peggy didn’t move for a while longer. She closed her eyes and happily sighed.

The time didn’t matter. Today was Saturday. She had no other commitments in the world.

She adjusted herself, flipping over to look at Steve. The sunlight that poked through the curtains was just enough to dimly light the room. She lightly rested her hand on his face. She toyed with his beard. Steve had closed his eyes again, a faint smile spread across his face. She lazily dragged her hand down from his face and wrapped her arm around his body. Steve pulled her a little closer.

“I’ve got enough cash,” Steve said some indeterminable amount of time later. “We could stay here all week.”

Peggy was vaguely curious as to where Steve had come up with all this money. She knew anything they had from the future was probably worthless and considered counterfeits in this time. She had seen how the quarters Peter pulled out of his pockets had changed compared to what everyone accepted. Peggy didn’t question him on how he had this money. She didn’t want to ruin this illusion quite yet.

“That’s tempting,” Peggy said.

“I know,” Steve responded. He sat up, the covers falling around him. He ran his hands through his hair. He slowly looked around the tiny room. Peggy couldn’t manage to tear her eyes away from him. Steve slid out of the bed, making his way towards where his phone sat on the bathroom counter. Tony had made everybody who needed one a phone charger that would work for these outlets.

Peggy figured it was time for her to get up as well. She quickly slipped on her dress from last night. It was that red dress, one she had hung onto for years, she wore to meet Steve once during the War. It just barely skirted the line of being too dressy to wear home and not be obvious what happened last night.

“Breakfast?” Steve asked. He poked his head around the corner and looked at her.

“That sounds wonderful,” Peggy said. “I recall seeing a diner a few blocks down.”

She made an attempt to brush her hair out with her fingers.

“I can braid your hair,” Steve offered.

Peggy stopped. She stared at him in confusion. Was hair braiding some popular skill in the future? He had never offered to do that for her or anyone else during the war.

“Wanda taught me,” Steve said with a shrug of his shoulders.

Peggy wasn’t completely sure how to respond to that.

 

-

 

Steve shoved another bite of eggs into his mouth. There was loud music that filled the small restaurant. They were one of the few patrons since they were at the restaurant at an unusually late time for breakfast.

“I knew something was off,” Steve continued. “When I woke up and they were playing an old Dodgers game on the radio.”

Peggy shook her head at how careless the staff had been. That was a rookie mistake. She couldn’t imagine how anybody would green light that. Especially if it was a figure as important as Captain America.

“Howard’s plan for finding you consisted of flying you to New York City. He would have requested medical assistance from either Shield or doctors with gag orders. He was so focused on making sure you survived that he didn’t have any plan to ease the transition. He wholeheartedly believed that you hadn’t died in that crash.”

“I can’t believe I lived,” Steve said softly.

Steve ate another bite of his eggs. He closed his eyes and thoughtfully chewed his eggs. Peggy didn’t speak. She didn’t know what she should say to that.

“You’ve been in New York City since ’46, right? You seen a Dodgers game yet?”

Peggy smiled regretfully and shook her head. “I’m afraid I don’t know much about baseball, so I’ve never gone.”

“You gotta go at least once, Peggy,” Steve said. “The Dodgers are going to move to LA in a couple years. You need to see ‘em before that.”

“That’s a rather strange place for them to move to,” Peggy said. She had absolutely no intentions of seeing a baseball game alone. But she figured she would humor him. Steve shook his head and grinned. He knew what she was doing.

“I’ve never been to LA because of that,” Steve joked.

Peggy tilted her head. She took a bite of her pancakes before speaking again. “You’ve never been to LA?”

Steve shrugged. “No reason for me to go. We were traveling in other countries to avoid Ross.”

“I lived in LA for around a year,” Peggy said. “The weather was much nicer there.”

“Why’d you come back then?”

“The SSR dissolved. Howard and I decided to focus on replacing it. It made much more sense to be located on the East Coast since that’s much closer to DC.”

“Why not be in DC?”

“That’s the next step,” Peggy said. “We hope to be well established and acquiring more funding by this coming Autumn.”

Steve nodded. He seemed appeased by that answer. They decided to steer the conversation away from that subject when a small family came in and sat down directly across from them.

 

-

 

They walked home. Steve had more than enough money for a cab ride to her apartment, but they both preferred to walk. They wanted to spend more time together before returning home to their obligations.

“There’s this thing called Uber that is slowly replacing taxis,” Steve was telling her. “There’s independent drivers and you use an app on your phone, and they’ll pick you up right where you’re standing. It’s a lot nicer than hailing a cab.”

“You summon a stranger to your exact location?” Peggy questioned.

Steve had his hand intertwined with hers. He held on tightly, afraid to let go of her. Occasionally, he would swing their arms back and forth.

“Same as cabs and this is a lot cheaper,” Steve responded.

Peggy narrowed her eyes at him. She didn’t buy this whole Uber concept. Cabs were verified drivers. Uber were just strangers picking you up.

“They’re all reviewed by the riders, so you know how good a driver is ahead of time. That’s a lot safer than a taxi.”

The snow began to fall harder around them. Without a second thought, Steve shrugged off his suit jacket and wrapped it around Peggy before she could object. Steve was holding her hand again before she knew it.

“It’s a lot faster to call an Uber than a taxi. Especially in countries where only Nat speaks the language. You program where you want to go ahead of time.”

“I’m assuming Nat speaks a lot of languages?” Peggy questioned. She wanted to distract Steve from this Uber talk.

“English, Russian, German, French, Romanian, and Italian are the ones I’ve heard so far,” Steve said. He paused and then continued with his Uber talk. “Peggy, some drivers have food in their Ubers, so they can get tips and better reviews. That beats a taxi any day.”

Peggy laughed at him. “Steve, I believe you. Ubers are clearly better.”

“I’m glad you got to see the future for a little while,” Steve said. “I wish I had known.”

“Steve, I’ll be there again. I’m going to help fight Thanos and then I’ll return home.”

Steve was spared a response. They had made it to her apartment complex. Steve quickly stepped forwards, beating Peggy to open the door. They made their way through the empty lobby to the elevators. She pressed the button and they waited in silence for the elevator doors to open.

The pair stepped inside. Steve looked at her, staring for several long moments.

“This was nice, Peggy. Thank you.”

“I’d love to do it again,” Peggy said. “Perhaps dinner at 8 tonight?”

Steve pulled out his phone and checked the time. “It’s already noon, we should go get lunch.”

“That sounds lovely,” Peggy responded. She leaned her head against his chest and smiled.

The doors opened with a faint ding when it reached their floor. Steve held her hand as they walked across the hallway to her door. When they were halfway there, Steve froze. He cocked his head to the side and held a finger to his lips. Peggy immediately found herself reaching for the gun in her purse. Steve dropped her hand. He slowly crept across the floor to her apartment door. He pressed his ear against the door.

 _Howard,_ he mouthed to her. Steve closed his eyes as he listened. His hand raised upwards and he held up two fingers.

Peggy quickly slide his suit jacket off of her shoulders. She closed the distance between them and tossed it back to him. Steve’s eyes widened. The door swung open.

Steve found himself wedged between the door and the wall. Peter stood there. He had on that awful t-shirt and jeans he wore from when he got here. He was strikingly out of place compared to everyone in suits behind him. Peter’s eyes were wide. He had a little bit of sweat dripping from his forehead.

“Good afternoon, Peter,” Peggy said. She was aware of how painfully obvious it was about what she had been doing. Behind Peter, Howard and Daniel were milling around with the others in the living room. Jarvis forced a smile on his face. Peggy stepped inside and quickly shut the door behind her. She didn’t dare glance back at Steve’s poor hiding spot.

Howard stood up from his position on the couch. He brushed his hands against his suit pants. Tony had invention plans scattered across the living room. She knew there were formulas that weren’t even close to being created yet. She really hoped Howard hadn’t inspected any. Howard’s eyes fell on Peggy’s red dress. He recognized it. Of course, he did.

Daniel shifted. He was staring at Peggy, taking in what she was wearing. He eyed Howard and then took a step towards Peggy.

“To what do I owe the pleasure,” Peggy said. She set her purse down and abandoned the gun inside of it. She was certain they had all seen her grasping onto it when Peter opened the door.

Peggy expected Tony to have jumped in the conversation and filled her in. Instead, he was quiet. Tony was as white as a ghost and staring at Howard. He stood in the corner of the room, leaning against the fireplace. He barely tore his eyes away from Howard when Peggy walked inside. Tony’s gaze, however, had quickly returned back to Howard. Tony’s only movement were his hands clicking a pen.

Peggy forced a smile at him, but Tony ignored her.

“We were just explaining to…Mr. Stark about our theory on wormholes,” Bruce volunteered.

Tony nodded slightly.

“Interesting work,” Howard said. “Not sure how my labs would help with it since it’s mostly theoretical.”

“Two weeks of work in your lab would be able to allow us to organize our thoughts and do some testing. Nothing would be damaged, and we would happily put your name on any published research,” Bruce said.

Peggy didn’t move from her spot. Howard was pursing his lips. He was on the verge of being convinced. Peggy could tell he liked the theory, it was just a matter of him letting people use his personal lab like that.

“I can supervise their work so that way you don’t have to stay there for all hours of the night,” Peggy offered quickly.

“Nah,” Howard said. “I’ll be involved with this project if it happens.”

Tony straightened out at that comment. “Dr. Banner and I work best with just the two of us.”

“You’ve never worked with a Stark before,” Howard said, grinning at him.

It took everything in Peggy to keep a blank face at that comment. Peter’s eyes widened ever so slightly. Thor, on the other hand, was completely caught off guard by that comment. He covered his mouth with his elbow and had some weird mixture of coughing and laughing that filled the room for a few moments. He stopped after Tony’s eyes fell on him. Howard seemed completely oblivious to Thor’s outburst. Tony seemed at a lack of words. If he said anything snarky, Peggy knew that Howard would take away the lab privileges that they desperately needed to get back to the future.

Daniel shifted his weight. He was still eying up the room. He seemed incredibly suspicious of these people.

“How about we have a word in the hallway, Peggy,” Daniel said.

“In the hallway?” Peggy spoke slightly louder than she needed to. “Certainly.”

Daniel moved towards the door. He brushed by her and swung it open. Peggy slowly spun around. She was relieved to find the hallway empty. She made her way outside the door. Howard and Jarvis quickly followed her.

“Who the hell are those people?” Daniel said as soon as the door shut behind them.

“Family friends,” Peggy easily lied. She leaned up against the door. It would prevent Peter or somebody from coming out and interrupting their conversation.

“Family friends who said you were born in London?” Daniel questioned. “Family friends who are American and one’s named after a Greek god?”

“I believe the name Thor is from Norse mythology,” Mr. Jarvis corrected.

Daniel ignored Jarvis and continued. “Something’s wrong, Peggy. We can help you.”

“I like their theories on wormholes,” Howard added, very helpfully.

Peggy closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead. She took a long, drawn out breath. When she opened her eyes, Daniel had a strange look on his face. It was something she vary rarely saw. He was chewing on his lip. His hair was disheveled from running his hands through it. He was genuinely worried about her.

“Daniel,” Peggy began. “I assure you nothing is wrong. They are family friends who I’ve known for years. Bruce and Tony have traveled around for research for many years, which is how we met. Thor is an assistant and I believe Peter is their newest intern. If something was wrong, I would tell you Daniel. I promise.”

 “How come we’ve never heard of them before?”

Peggy crossed her arms. “How many siblings do I have, Daniel?”

Daniel’s eyebrows shot up to his forehead at the sudden subject change. He leaned against his crutch and stared at her. Peggy knew he had assumed she had none. He made a lot of assumptions about her life that she had never bothered to correct.

“I had one. He died during the war. If I hadn’t mentioned him, why would I mention people from a small part of my childhood?”

“I’m sorry, Peggy, I didn’t know.”

“Now is that all, Daniel?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys so much for reading! As always, any questions, comments, or concerns, please let me know!
> 
> Also, if you're worried about End Game spoilers at any point in this fic, don't be! The character posters that were just released revealed somebody I wrote as snapped to actually be alive. I hope to finish uploading everything before End Game comes out. However, that might not happen depending on my exam schedule.


	17. January 10th, 1955

Peggy was hovering in the lab. She stood near the entryway, drinking a cup of tea with Ana and Jarvis. Bruce and Tony were hurrying about the lab. They were working too fast. There was too much room for error if they rushed like that. They had spent their entire Sunday here so far. Steve, Thor, and Peter had been abandoned at home.

Howard was blabbering on about some topic. He was compensating for not knowing much about the current subject. It was painfully obvious. Tony would glance up at Howard every so often. He would narrow his eyes at Howard and then stare at Peggy for several long moments. She had a hunch that he was silently pleading for her to make Howard stop talking. Meanwhile, Bruce seemed unbothered by the constant stream of talking. 

“They’re very smart,” Ana remarked softly. She had only joined them recently when she brought down the tea. Ana had probably been with them only a half hour at most.

“I’ve seen some of their work,” Peggy said. “It is certainly impressive.”

“Like what?” Ana asked.

Mr. Jarvis stiffened. Ana looked over at him curiously.

Peggy was saved having to answer by Tony walking over to their little corner of the lab.

“We need to test something. Can you get rid of Howard?” Tony whispered.

Peggy was unimpressed. Especially since he was coming up to them while Ana was present. Jarvis had made it painfully clear only a few days ago that she would not be involved. Jarvis nodded thoughtfully. He waved Tony away. The three of them waited and didn’t speak. Ana looked between Peggy and Jarvis. She, thankfully, remained silent.

Bruce was pretending to fiddle with some equipment, screwing materials together. Tony was reviewing paper files.

“Mr. Stark,” Jarvis said. Tony looked up. “I believe it’s nearly time for a break. Would you like to go up and have a drink before dinner?”

Howard looked at Jarvis and back at the research. Peggy was fairly certain that they had given Howard a bunch of fairly complicated math problems that ‘pertained’ to the research. In reality, it was just busy work. They had assigned Peter to come up with enough stuff for Howard to work on that just barely related to their research.

“You know,” Howard said, standing up, “you’re good at this, Tony. Have you ever considered going into the weapons business? I’d be happy to hire you. There’s a lot more money in it than this theoretical stuff.”

Tony’s eyebrows shot up to his forehead. “I’ll… I’ll keep that in mind.”

Howard smirked. “You guys want drinks? Jarv, get them drinks.”

Bruce and Tony stared at each other. They had been giving each other looks any time Howard ordered Jarvis around. Howard was just now starting to notice it.

“It’s time to take a break, Mr. Stark,” Jarvis repeated.

Howard rolled his eyes and waved him off. Peggy softly took a sip of tea. If anybody else butted in to encourage Howard to leave, he would realize they were trying to get rid of him. If Jarvis even spoke one more time, Howard would probably be tipped off. Finally, after several long moments Howard shrugged his shoulders and went up the stairs to the main section of his home.

Tony softly counted to five. He glanced back up at the stairs and then motioned to Bruce. They began working quickly. Peggy picked up her tea and positioned herself at the bottom of the stairs to keep watch for Howard.

“Ana,” Jarvis spoke. He rubbed his ear. “Why don’t you go upstairs and keep Mr. Stark occupied?”

Ana tilted her head at her husband. “You won’t be getting rid of me that easily.”

Tony glanced back at them. He stared at Ana for several long moments and then tore his eyes away. Mr. Jarvis stiffened. Bruce was fastening a piece of metal together. Tony held out his arm and the Iron Man glove formed around his hand. He had attempted to position himself out of sight of Ana. Ana had seen, and her jaw dropped at the sight of that glove.

“You mustn’t say a word of this to Howard,” Peggy whispered. “He cannot find out.”

“What is that?” Ana questioned.

“Please go upstairs,” Mr. Jarvis begged.

Ana didn’t even look at Jarvis. She leaned forwards, staring at the contraption they had quickly pieced together. It was some long, rectangular metal box. It was surprisingly small. A foot tall at most. Tony held out his hand. The glove whirled to life and the palm began to glow. Something sparked. Bruce’s eyes widened.

A loud crash rang out from upstairs. Howard began cursing. Jarvis should have gone upstairs to help him. Instead, Jarvis remained planted in his spot. Peggy glanced upstairs, to see if Howard was coming to get Jarvis. The muffled stomps moved away from the door. Howard had caught on to the dirty looks any time he ordered Jarvis around. Howard had spent the day in awe of how Tony and Bruce had performed. He wanted to impress his—what he decided—new friends. Or at least, that was Peggy’s strong theory.

Peggy’s attention snapped back to the experiment at hand. Tony's glove was powering the machine. He had pressed against the metal. The inside was glowing from the heat. Tony kept glancing back up at the stairs. He expected Howard to barge in at any moment.

Bruce grabbed a nearby rag and began adjusting the singular dial on the side.

“We’ll need one for year, day, hours, minutes, and seconds,” Bruce said.

“Friday, write—” Tony began to say and then fell quiet. Bruce pursed his lips together. He grabbed a nearby pencil and began scribbling down what he said. Tony pushed down harder against the metal.

Sparks flew. Bruce reached forwards, turning the knob with his bare hand. As soon as the knob’s position was adjusted, he yanked his hand away and shook it. Tony removed his glove and the machine’s color began to fade. Peggy blinked. A small object flew out of it. It was too tiny for Peggy to see what it was from this distance. However, she could tell it was oddly shaped. Ana leaned forwards, trying to make out what it was. It lay on the table. Tony’s mouth opened and closed. He recognized it.

“What is that?” Bruce asked.

Tony ignored him. The glove folded back up, disappearing, as Tony leaned down to get a closer look at it.

“Should we do mouth to mouth?” Tony asked. “CPR? Is that a thing yet?”

Peggy glanced back up the stairs. There was no sign of Howard. She motioned for Jarvis and Ana to stay back and began approaching the object. It lay motionless on the table. It almost looked like a tiny little army man, except for the silver head with a red and black body. Whatever it was, was promising. Tony had a massive grin spreading across his face.

It moved.

The thing sat up and looked around the room.

Its hand moved, pressing some sort of button. Then it began to grow. Tony was the only one who acted like this was normal. To Peggy, it was reassuring that even Bruce looked shocked.

“Mr. Stark,” the figure said. The silver helmet popped off to reveal a regular man underneath. He reached out and began shaking Tony’s hand. “It is so nice to see you. Long time no see. Thank you for rescuing me! Sorry about breaking your suit that one time. Where’s Hope and Janet and Hank?”

Peggy glanced over her shoulder to look at Jarvis and Ana. Ana seemed confused over the use of Tony’s last name. Jarvis’ mouth had dropped open. She was certain he was connecting the dots and realizing how similar Tony and Howard were. Peggy could never stop comparing them since she found out. They were so painfully similar once you realized they were related.

“Tony Stark,” Jarvis whispered.

“Howard has relatives?” Ana asked.

The man was looking around the room. A strange look passed across his face as he realized the technology was vastly different when compared to the future. “Where are we?”

“Is that Ant-Man?” Bruce asked.

Noises echoed across the room. Howard’s footsteps as he approached the stairs.

“Shrink and shut up,” Tony hissed.

Ant-Man did as he was told. Tony reached down to the floor and picked Ant-Man up. He then proceeded to throw him at Peggy.

She looked at him and mouthed, “what do I do with him?”

Tony glanced around wildly. “Purse!”

Peggy’s purse was sitting on the table. Ana grabbed the bag and opened it up, allowing Peggy to throw Ant-Man inside.

Howard walked down the steps. “Hey, Jarv, when’s dinner?”

“I’ll… I’ll begin cooking in a few moments. Director Carter, Bruce, and Tony, would you be interested in staying for dinner?”

Ana had an expert poker face. She didn’t let on that she knew anything. Mr. Jarvis, on the other hand, was a terrible liar and made it clear that something happened. He was nearly tugging his ear off. Howard was wrapped up in his own little world.

“I’m afraid we should probably get going. We have Peter and Thor to feed but thank you for the offer.”

Peggy then had to pick up her purse, with a little man inside of it, and walk out of the house as if nothing had happened. Tony and Bruce were walking quickly behind her. Each of them muttered their thanks to Howard as they walked past him. Peggy felt Ana’s eyes drilling holes into the back of her head.

 

 -

 

Nobody had talked about the man inside Peggy’s purse. Nobody addressed it at all. During the walk home, Peggy had heard the man speak occasionally. He tried to crack jokes and ask questions. The three of them ignored him.

Peggy opened the apartment door. Bruce and Tony shuffled in after her. Peter perked up when he saw they were home. Thor slowly lowered the sandwich he was eating. Steve looked up from where he was drawing. She felt bad for the three of them. There wasn’t anything for them to do to aid in getting home. They just had to wait.

Peggy gingerly set her purse on the floor. The three of them took a few steps back. Steve stood up. He stared at the purse as if it was some sort of weapon. Everybody stared and waited. The purse didn’t move.

“The coast is clear,” Tony said.

The purse moved slightly. Scott was climbing over the edge of the purse and stood on the carpet. He turned around the room and took everything in. Thor lunged over the couch to see what it was. He laid on his stomach and stared at the small man. Thor reached a finger out and poked it. Scott stared up at Thor.

“You’re Thor,” Ant-Man said, sounding shocked. “Where’s all your hair?”

The slight smile on Thor’s face vanished. He glared at the creature. “It was forcibly cut on a barbaric planet.”

“Oh,” said Ant-Man.

Peggy could just barely make out him attempting to press the button on his hand a few times. He bashed his hand against the metal piece on his stomach and began to grow.

“Are you a sorcerer?” Thor asked curiously at the now regular sized man.

The metal mask unfurled to reveal Scott’s face. “Yes I am. Would you like to see a magic trick?”

Thor eagerly nodded. Tony sighed, rolled his eyes, and pressed a hand against his face.

“Is it get really big?” Peter questioned.

“No. Got any cards?” Scott set down the metal cylinder he had been holding. Peter grabbed the deck of cards off Peggy’s side table and handed it to Scott.

“That’s Ant-Man,” Bruce stated as they watched Scott do some card trick. It was actually rather skillful. Peggy remembered watching the Commandos attempt to do card tricks during the war. They were all bloody awful at it. It stopped, luckily, after a few months because they kept gradually losing the cards and ran out.

Steve was watching Scott with a huge grin. After Scott finished the trick, he turned around and extended his hand to Steve.

“Nice to see you, Cap. I have to say, I’m a little surprised to see you and Stark in the same room. Thanks for rescuing me, though. Where’s Hope?”

Steve bit down on his lip. “Nobody’s told you yet.”

“Is Hope okay?” Scott demanded.

“He came out of the machine we made,” Tony said.

“I was in the Quantum Realm. I was down there and lost connection with the Pyms. I’m not sure how long I was there for. The next thing I knew I was in Tony Stark’s lab.”

“Howard Stark’s lab,” Tony corrected.

Scott whipped his head around to look at Tony. “What?”

Steve placed his hand on Scott’s arm and guided him towards the couch. Scott sat down. He had the most confused look on his face. He began glancing around the room, inspecting it much more closely. Peggy could pinpoint the exact moment of Scott connecting the dots. She was sure he realized the technology was much different, much more dated, than what he was used to. Scott buried his hands in his face.

“Oh god, I stumbled into a time rift.”

“They have time rifts in the Quantum Realm?” Bruce prodded.

“Do you remember the attack on New York? An alien named Thanos was behind that. He wanted to find all the Infinity Stones and destroy half the universe to bring balance.” Steve explained. “He sent us back in time to get rid of us, so we wouldn’t be able to continue fighting him.”

“We think he succeeded,” Thor said.

“I have to find Cassie,” Scott said wildly. He shot up from his seat and began making his way towards the door.

“It’s 1955,” Peggy said.

Scott froze.


	18. January 13th, 1955

Scott knew enough to get them kick started towards harnessing the Quantum Realm’s power of time travel. They had called off working in Howard’s lab for a few days to gather their thoughts and begin working towards their new goal. They had promising theories thanks to Scott. It was just a matter of actually traversing through the Quantum Realm.

Bruce, Tony, Scott, and Peter were confident that they would be able to build a portal back to the Quantum Realm. The particles Scott had collected for a ghost—Peggy was confused by that statement, but nobody questioned him—would greatly aid them in being able to create what they needed. The one issue was a passage way out. Scott was fairly certain that he could get back to the same location that he was dropped off at and would be able to manually open the gateway from inside the Quantum Realm as long as the machinery was still set up the same way as when he went into the Realm.

The one issue is that they wanted somebody to close the gateway in 1955 and destroy it so nobody could recreate it. Scott had made that very, very clear. They all expected Peggy to do that job. There was no way she would let that happen. Peggy couldn’t let them go back alone to face Thanos. She knew she wasn’t much compared to the powers they had, but she could still be valuable. She wouldn’t let them go off and face Thanos alone. She wouldn’t.

That was when she suggested that they train Mr. Jarvis in helping to deconstruct and destroy the machine. Two people could get rid of it a lot faster than one.

Peggy knew exactly what she was going to do to get back to the future.

 

-

 

Work had been meaningless this week. Daniel had dropped everything. He would glance at her every so often, but he seemed to be appeased after their weekend visit. The Commandos were coming in on Saturday. Which meant that every piece of tech or article belonging to Steve had to be gone by then. Peggy knew that Dugan and the rest were nosy enough to have to dig through everything. Personal items to them were not common during the war. They had the choice between vacating the premises or returning to Steve’s apartment. The 2-room apartment that Rebecca Barnes watched like a hawk and would notice if anybody started living there. Peggy was certain she was the one that called the police originally. Rebecca had actually done them a massive favor the first time. However, being arrested there while the Commandos and Howard were in town was not a good plan.

Which meant that they had until Friday to get out of there. Peggy was certain she’d be able to make it home. Doctor Strange would get possession of the Time Stone again. He would happily send her back as he hated her being there in the first place. Or, with better ‘tech’ in the future, she’d be able get back through the Quantum Realm somehow. They’d figure it out after Thanos was defeated. After that, they’d have all the time in the world.

Thursday was when they called Mr. Jarvis over.

“Ana is still pestering me about Tony’s last name,” Jarvis said immediately when Peggy swung open the door.

“Yeah,” Scott said from a pile of paperwork. “My bad.”

“Tell her it was practical joke,” Peggy suggested.

“She did not believe that.”

Tony had set up their little Quantum Realm portal on the doorway that separated the kitchen and the living room. The only way to get into that kitchen meant having to go outside in the snow and go in the other door. It was extremely practical. Bruce was working on the paneling right now. It had that triangle shape similar to their original machine. Scott was insistent that it had to have that component and block off her kitchen. Tony reached his arm out, using the laser on his glove to help weld the metal together. Metal and other materials that they had been pocketing from Howard the past few days. Peter had webbed a network of the metal scraps together to make sure that the measurements were exact. He had the metal curtain attached to his wrist and stood on the kitchen table to make it tall enough to reach the top of the doorway.

“If you don’t mind me asking,” Jarvis said, stepping towards Tony, “how are you related to Mr. Stark?”

Tony looked up at Jarvis and blinked. “I do mind.”

Steve didn’t seem surprised by Tony’s behavior. He had been stationed at a crafting station. It was some sort of weaving with a variant of Peter’s net material. Steve was fastening a long rope to keep them all together in the Quantum Realm.

“Tony,” Bruce sighed.

Mr. Jarvis didn’t move. He didn’t shy away from how Tony snapped at him.

“Howard’s my dad,” Tony said, finally, into the silence.

“Will I know you in the future?” Jarvis asked.

“I shouldn’t say,” Tony muttered.

Mr. Jarvis nodded. That answered his question. Thor grabbed the rope Steve was making and began tugging on it to check its stability. Peggy couldn’t believe that they were merely going to tie themselves to a rope to stay together in a place that Scott swore was going to be one of the most dangerous experiences of their life.

“It’s welded weak enough that a hammer can break it,” Bruce was saying. “Don’t dispose of the materials all in one place. We don’t need somebody being able to reconstruct this. Howard getting stuck in there is something we need to avoid.”

“Of course,” Peggy said, nodding along.

Mr. Jarvis watched intensely as Bruce demonstrated the ways they should dismantle all of the different materials. He gave suggestions on where to dispose of the different materials.

“The webs we’re using on the Quantum Machine will dissolve in about 24 hours.”

Which meant they had a timeframe to get the rest of the material finished. Therefore, Peggy would be staying home from work to make sure they didn’t leave without her.

“Do you think you could be here around 1 tomorrow to help us power it up, Jarvis?” Bruce asked. That would be Friday. Saturday was when the Commandos were due in.

“I’ll give Mr. Stark an early lunch,” Jarvis said solemnly.

 

-

 

“Tony’s not going to let you come,” Steve said.

It was nearing midnight. Tony and Bruce were still up working. The others had fallen asleep a few hours ago. Steve and Peggy were in their room. Steve was watching as Peggy grabbed her backpack. It was the big, tan military issue pack that she had held onto all these years. She shoved a change of clothing and her pair of heavy boots into it. She threw her lipstick in the upper pouch. She grabbed her bobby pins. She even packed the photo album Angie had created. Peggy wasn’t sure why she felt the need to grab it, but she did.

Then there was the gas mask. Scott wasn’t completely sure if they needed it in the Quantum Realm. However, a lot of them had masks that would help them filter out any stuff they shouldn’t be breathing in. Tony, Peter, and Scott all had masks that were part of their costumes. Steve and Thor would probably be safe. Steve had told her about some story of him being able to breathe in toxic fumes and how it didn’t affect him. Bruce was the only one who was going that needed a mask. Or he was supposed to be the only one going that needed a mask. Peggy had managed to get ahold of two old gas masks from the War that they could wear.

“Would you like me to put any of your stuff in it?” Peggy asked.

Steve grabbed his little box of possessions. He rummaged around in it and pulled out the ring. Peggy realized now that it was his mother’s engagement ring. It was probably one of the few things that had survived of hers. She knew it had vanished before Steve woke up. Steve had told her that. This was probably how it disappeared. Steve wouldn’t have anyway to store it if he brought it himself.

Peggy began rummaging through her closet. There was a necklace jewelry box buried in the very bottom of her wardrobe. She pulled it out and then grabbed a washcloth from her bathroom. Steve gingerly wrapped the ring up and placed it inside the box. Peggy would make sure to take special care of it. She wouldn’t destroy one of the few items Steve cared about. What she grabbed next was second instinct. They were going off to fight a battle. She took her dog tags and hung it around her neck.

“Peggy,” Steve said. “If you aren’t able to come with us, I want to tell you something.”

She was facing the mirror. She could see Steve’s reflection staring back at her. He placed a hand on her shoulder and toyed with the dog tags.

“I’m coming, Steve,” she interrupted him.

Steve gave her his signature puppy dog look. “I’m glad we got to have a second chance.”

“It’s not ending.” Her voice wavered as she spoke.

“If something happens,” Steve amended. “If Thanos kills one of us…”

“He won’t,” Peggy promised him.

She turned around to face him. The backpack was forgotten at her feet. Steve wrapped his other arm around her waist and pulled her into a long hug. Peggy wasn’t sure what Steve was planning on saying next. She had an idea on what he could say. She hoped he didn’t.

“Thank you,” Steve said, finally.

Peggy was glad he didn’t say anything else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I may or may not be adding an extra chapter. I want to explain the ending of the story a little more and explain what happens after /the/ scene but I also don't want to drag it on. However, I feel like I'm leaving it a little too vague... Essentially, what I'm saying is that the chapter count may go up to 31 or 32. I'm not really sure yet.
> 
> It may possibly be a triple upload night... It depends what time I get back from getting my Pokemon Go streaks.


	19. January 14th, 1955 and August 29th, 2018

Tony was rubbing his face. He was very clearly exhausted. Mr. Jarvis stood next to him. He had started taking on a much more parental role now that he knew. Peggy had a huge feeling that Mr. Jarvis and Ana would be actively involved in raising Tony. They’d end up raising Tony more than Howard would. Peggy looked forwards to it. She’d be able to see Tony again and help raise him herself. She could imagine how smart he was as a child.

Peggy was dressed in her pants suit. She had the backpack propped up against the wall to be easy to grab and make sure they didn’t go in the portal when her back was turned. Tony had been so caught up in his own world that he didn’t even notice.

Peter stood in his spider suit. He looked excited to go back. He was practically bouncing on his toes. Thor was ready. He had slicked back his shortly cropped hair and wore his battle armor again. Bruce just seemed nervous. He had the gas mask nestled in his arms.

Steve had begun binding the rope around Scott’s waist. He was the leader of the line, the only one who had experienced the Quantum Realm. Given how he’s been the past few days, Peggy was nervous to be placing their lives in his hands like this.

“Well,” Tony said. “Thank you so much for everything, Peggy. I don’t think I could ever repay you. Thank you, Jarvis.”

Peggy arched an eyebrow at him and crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m coming, Tony.”

“You’re not coming. You’re where you’re supposed to be.”

“We already decided this, Tony,” Peggy said.

“Uh no. We didn’t.”

Tony threw his hands into the air and turned around. He was talking down to her. He was treating her like she was one of those Guardians of the Galaxy. Peggy couldn’t help but ball her hands into fists. She was certain that would help her case.

“Alright. Give me one good reason why you should come. A reason that tops taking you to Thanos, getting you killed, and the universe exploding because you couldn’t sit out a fight.”

Peggy had him. She stared at him. The corner of her mouth twitched upwards.

“My death would hardly affect the universe, Tony. My telling Howard Steve’s coordinates and him being found nearly 60 years early certainly would.”

Tony’s jaw dropped. “You didn’t tell her that, Rogers. You can’t be that stupid.”

It was all up to Steve on if she would be coming. Steve could call her on her bluff, defend himself, and with that they would be gone. It would be like this entire situation had never happened. She would go back to living her life and working towards solidifying Shield. Or Steve could lie. He could tell Tony he told her those coordinates in a moment of weakness. He had made a mistake and that Peggy never broke her promises. That he would look forward to Howard rescuing him.

Steve leaned against the wall. He knew the entire room was staring at him. He looked Tony dead in the eyes and recited what Peggy could only assume were his coordinates.

“She knows now,” Steve said. He smirked. Peggy could barely manage to keep a straight face. It turned out even better than she expected.

Tony’s eye twitched.

“We’ll have the technology in the future to bring her back,” Bruce said helpfully.

“If Thanos kills her,” Tony snapped.

“Thanos will kill no more,” Thor stated.

Tony’s rolled his eyes dramatically.

Steve began tying Bruce into the line. Peggy picked up her backpack and hoisted it around her shoulders. She had won. Everybody’s focuses quickly returned to their original tasks. They didn’t have much time. She had already warned Mr. Jarvis that he would have to dispose of the parts alone. The next thing she knew, Steve was tying her into the line, right behind Peter. Steve would be behind her and Tony would take up the rear. Peggy reached into her bag and pulled out a letter to hand to Mr. Jarvis.

Jarvis took the letter and slid it into one of his inner suit jacket pockets. Peggy smiled at him. She’d be back before he knew it. Or at least, she was telling herself that. She knew just as well as Tony that this mission had a major possibility of killing them.

Tony fired up the machine, pressing his glove into the portion.

“Going to the Quantum Realm is painful,” Scott began nervously as he stood at the entrance of the machine. Everybody was lined up behind him, already waiting to go into it. “You’re going to hear things. It’s going to try to drive you insane. Just…don’t let it.”

The machine whirled to life at that moment. The power flickered in Peggy’s apartment. Scott began shuffling the line forwards. He stepped into the machine as if it was second nature to him by this point. The force of him going into the machine was enough to yank the rest of them off of their feet and into the machine.

Peggy wished she had one more moment to say goodbye to Mr. Jarvis.

 

-

 

It was unlike anything she had ever seen before. The colors swirled around her. They were vibrant. Everything was full of pops of color. In the distance, there were these giant creatures. They looked similar to little bugs. Maggots? Peggy couldn’t supply the word. She was too distracted by how incredible it looked.

“I think the time rifts are the big green clouds. After that, we just need to press the button and forcibly open a way home,” Scott said. His voice sounded so distant, even though he was only a few feet away from her. “As long as the machine has power on its end, it’ll work.”

Nobody said anything. They were all kind of paddling towards the clouds Scott pointed to. Every stroke felt like she was swimming through pudding. She knew they were moving, but it felt like they made no progress.

“Peggy,” a voice rang out. She would recognize it anywhere.

She bit her lip to prevent herself from shouting out her brother’s name. He wasn’t there. It was just her mind playing tricks on her.

“I’ve missed you, Peggy,” Michael said. “It seems you’re living in quite the adventure.”

He wasn’t there. She knew he wasn’t. She kept swimming forwards. She couldn’t be the dead weight on the team. She couldn’t slow them down.

Good lord, would they ever make it there? She jerked her head to the side. That was enough to cause Michael’s voice to vanish. One of those creatures was moving towards them. It was easily going double the speed they were.

“What do we do?” Peter asked.

“Ignore it until it tries to kill us,” Scott said.

 

-

 

Getting out of it was hell. It felt like her body was being torn apart. Like she was growing and shrinking all at the same time. They all ended up on a cement floor in a pile of limbs. Peggy had expected to be outdoors. That’s where Scott had described his mission taking place. Instead, they were inside a garage.

Scott reached up to a nearby shelf and grabbed a knife to begin cutting away at the rope. He quickly freed himself from Thor. Steve was reaching up from his position on the floor to grab another knife to free himself from Tony and then Peggy. After a few moments, it was just Peggy and Peter attached to each other. Peter was laying on the ground. He looked dazed. Peggy pulled him up to his feet. The trip must have hurt him. Peggy felt queasy, but she certainly didn’t look as bad as Peter did.

“The date is August 29th, 2018,” Steve said, looking at his phone.

“This is my house!” Scott exclaimed.

“We did it,” Peter said. His voice sounded off. It sounded like it pained him to speak. His forehead was wrinkled, as if he was focusing really hard on something.

“What’s wrong, kid?” Tony asked.

Peter stumbled forwards towards Tony. Peggy moved with him. Peter had a surprising amount of force to cause her to lose her footing slightly. Tony’s eyes widened. He grabbed Peter and gently lowered him to the ground. Peggy went with them. Peter’s arms were wrapped around Tony in a desperate hug.

“I think… I think Thanos won… I don’t feel so good, Mr. Stark.”

“Nah,” Tony said. “You’re fine, Pete. It’s just the Quantum Realm.”

Tony was trying to reassure himself of that. Everybody could tell he didn’t believe it. Peggy placed her hand on Peter’s arm and squeezed it. He felt cold.

“I can’t stop it. I don’t want to go.”

“You’re not,” Tony reassured him.

Peggy could see the tears in Peter’s eyes. Peggy felt Peter’s arm shift. She watched in horror as his body changed. Falling away into dust. She pulled her hand away, holding a clump of what was once Peter’s arm. The dust fell into a pile, directly on Tony’s lap. Tony stared in shock, in horror, of what had become of Peter. Peggy’s eyes fell on the piece of Peter she was holding.

From ashes to ashes.

Nobody said anything for what felt like an eternity. The snap still reached them. The victims were predetermined. Peter had been selected in the initial snap and it had waited until he came back to kill him. This had happened to half the universe.

Any of them could be next.

Tony stared at what was once Peter. Peggy watched as a tear slid down his face.

“Scott, do you have anything to collect the ashes?” Steve’s question sounded more like an order. His voice was faded. Peggy could barely make out what he said. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Scott trying to get in the house and failing. The door must have been locked. Scott shrunk down and vanished. Peggy didn’t move. She didn’t want to risk dropping him onto the floor. Tony was different, he had let the dust slid through his hands and into a pile on his lap.

Time dragged on. She felt somebody, presumably Steve, kneel down behind her. He had a bowl. He took Peggy’s hands and poured the ashes into the bowl. Bruce was pulling Tony to his feet and brushing the dirt off and collecting it to put in the bowl. Thor was picking up the pieces off the ground.

“I should have made him stay behind where he was safe,” Tony said.

Peggy looked at Tony. “We couldn’t have known.”

“Thanos won,” Tony whispered.

Peggy watched as Thor was handed the bowl. He carefully took it and began walking into the house. Scott must have unlocked the door on the inside for them. He must have brought the bowl as well. She hadn’t even noticed him come back. Bruce awkwardly wrapped an arm Tony’s shoulder and began guiding him inside the home.

Steve didn’t make Peggy move. He let her sit there for a few more minutes. He let his hand rest on her lap, for her to grab if she needed it. Peggy waited until the others were gone. She turned around, moving across the floor to press her face against Steve’s chest. The Captain America suit material felt different than his old suit. The texture was off. It distracted her for a few moments. She couldn’t stop manage to stop the tears from streaming down her face.

Steve didn’t try to tell her it would be okay. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly.


	20. August 29th, 2018

Scott was on the phone, pacing back and forth. At his feet, following him, was a giant ant. Scott tripped over it a few times and cursed. He hung up the phone and slammed his fingers against the screen. Steve wrapped his hand around Peggy’s. The pair made their way to Scott’s couch. Tony sat there numbly. Bruce had Tony’s phone and was searching for something on it. Thor had taken to patrolling the room. Peggy watched as he drew the shades, and then peaked out of the shades to see if anybody was outside.

Steve pulled out his phone. Peggy leaned against his chest and watched as pulled up Natasha’s contact.

‘Status update?’ was the message Steve sent to her. He shut the phone off and tucked it back in his pocket.

Scott hung up the phone again. He squeezed it in his hands. There was something that looked like a plastic set of drums. Scott kicked it and watched as the drum kit collapsed in on itself.

“I can’t get ahold of anybody,” Scott said. “Not even Cassie is answering. But somebody moved the equipment and Luis’s van into my garage. Somebody’s been paying my bills and feeding Marie Antoinette.”

“Tell me that’s not what you named the giant ant,” Tony said. He rubbed his head. He was coming back to himself. The ant perked up at the name. It began clawing at Scott’s leg. Scott rubbed its head a few times and then pushed it away. He looked at his phone again and began trying to call someone.

“Cassie won’t answer. It goes straight to voicemail every time.”

“Where can we look for her?” Steve asked.

Scott’s shoulders relaxed. He looked at Steve with the hugest look of relief. “We can take Luis’s van and check her mom’s house. I’ll take the Quantum Realm machine out of the back and we can all pile in.”

Scott darted out of the room.

Bruce was staring down at his phone. Peggy could see him scrolling through news articles. They all related to the Avengers in some sort of way. Bruce was engrossed in his reading. Peggy watched, staring over his shoulder to try and see if there was any relevant information. Everything was just speculation and discussing the remaining Avengers. Someone named ‘Ross’ spoke about it being a major tragedy that Tony Stark and Captain Rogers had both died in the snap.

Steve rubbed his fingers against her hand. Peggy dropped his hand. She grabbed her backpack and slid inside the nearest bathroom. She quickly got changed into the boots and combat clothes she had brought.

 

-

 

Scott was going more than a little fast to get to their location. Peggy had been given map duty whenever it was needed and got the privilege of riding in the passenger seat. The rest of them rattled along in the back. Every so often, she would glance back at the four behind them. Tony had firmly planted himself in the far corner. He stared at his phone and ignored the others. Bruce was softly talking to them and showing Thor and Steve a news article. Peggy and Scott were both the odd ones out in this situation.

Scott slammed his hand down on the steering wheel. He cursed softly. Peggy looked into the mirrors to see a police officer with his lights on driving behind them.

Scott looked down at his Ant-Man costume and his eyes widened.

Peggy shrugged off her jacket and slung it at him. It was most likely best to not be stopped by the police if heroes were as criminalized as Steve stated. A jacket covering Scott’s costume didn’t do much when there were three people in full costume (and Bruce) in the back of the van.

The officer walked up to them. He seemed more than a little annoyed to be here. Peggy placed her hands in her lap and stared straight ahead.

Scott rolled down her window. “What seems to be the problem, officer?”

Scott was agitated to have been stopped. His fingers tapped out a rhythm on the wheel. He kept looking back on the road.

“Do you have any idea how fast you were going?” The officer questioned.

Scott glanced in the back of the van then back at the police officer. “Right… my bad.”

Scott then proceeded to pull a large, silver crank in the middle console of the van. Peggy watched as the man grew larger and larger, looming over them. Scott then proceeded to floor it.

“First time trying that on this van,” Scott mumbled.

 

-

 

Scott had stopped at a large, fancy house. He barely put the van—now back to regular size—in park before jumping out. Peggy watched as Scott ran to the door. At some point, he shrank down and disappeared into the house. The rest of them waited in silence for Scott to return.

He was small enough to sneak into the van and surprise them. One moment they were waiting and the next, Scott was full size and flooring it.

“There were two dust piles in there. Cassie could still be alive. We gotta find Luis.” Scott was already flooring it to their next location.

This one was in a city. It was some tiny, tucked away brick building. Scott hopped out. He waited at the door and gestured for everybody else to get out. Everyone stumbled out of the van. Tony’s Iron Man glove slipped away. That and the helmet had been the only salvageable pieces of his suit. He covered a hand to shield his face from the few people passing by. It didn’t help. Peggy saw a camera flash go off out of the corner of her eye.

Scott pressed a button and the van shrunk. He stuck it in his pocket.

The future was a bizarre place.

Scott was shoving them all inside the building and running up the stairs. He flung open the door at the end of them and ran inside. Peggy was the first up the stairs. She watched a little girl scream excitedly and run towards Scott. He was lifting her into the air, hugging her and spinning her in a circle. He called her peanut over and over.

There was another man, presumably Luis, who stood there. He was grinning from ear to ear at the sight of Scott.

“I knew you were alive! Everyone was like no, he died in the snap. But I thought there was no way. There was that crazy experiment I knew you guys were using my van for. I thought, Scotty’s got to be in that Quantum Realm stuff. Those Pyms were nowhere to be found. I think the wind blew away all their dust. I took the equipment back to your house to take care of it in case you were stuck there, ya know?”

“You saved the Avengers by doing that,” Scott said.

Luis looked up at the five of them awkwardly huddled by the doorway.

“No way,” Luis said. He hurried across the room and began quickly shaking Steve’s hand.  “You’re the Captain America! Scott said he met you. Said your friends get to call you Cap. Can I call you Cap?”

“Sure,” Steve said. Luis was still shaking his hand.

Scott coughed and proceeded to mutter to Luis, “you’re looking really uncool right now.”

“My bad. My bad,” responded Luis. He let go. His eyes fell on Tony Stark. He narrowed his eyes ever so slightly and spun on his heel to return his attention to Scott.

Luis and Scott began whispered to each other. Scott was dramatically gesturing with the arm that wasn’t holding Cassie. The five of them slowly shuffled out of the doorway and into the office. It was rundown with thick curtains drawn that shielded them from the outside world. There were three nice desks, piled high with clutter. The fourth desk was a card table. It was bare except for a picture of Cassie and plans neatly spread out.

Steve and Peggy moved over to get a closer look. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched the others mill about the office. Thor was inching his way towards the refrigerator.

The plans were well organized. They were four security cameras and motion sensors. Steve quietly explained to her how popular security cameras were now. There was a blind spot on the blueprints, a place that could be easily accessible. There was a door front and center in the blind spot. Steve and Peggy both glanced at each other. They were debating on if they should say something.

Luis walked over to them. He must have been finished with whatever conversation he was having with Scott.

“A.I.M specifically wanted the blind spot,” Luis said with a shrug.

“That’s interesting,” Steve said. He squinted at the blueprints. Luis very quickly rolled up the blueprints and tossed it onto the nearest pile.

“I’m sorry but that is just so weird you’ve been sleeping in my bed,” Scott blurted out, following Luis. He had stopped carrying Cassie, who now clung to his leg. She clearly recognized Steve but didn’t seem as starstruck as Luis had been. It was interesting to see everyone’s reactions to Steve. Peggy had assumed he would have faded away and been nothing but a minor footnote in history after twenty or so years had passed.

Luis rolled his eyes. “I had to live somewhere! I was Cassie’s new dad. I can’t let a kid live alone, Scotty.”

“You’re not my dad,” Cassie spoke flatly.

“I’m so sorry you were left with him, Peanut,” Scott paused. “It’ll only happen one more time. Us Avengers are going to fix this.”

“You and Rogers aren’t Avengers,” Tony said.

“You’re the reason my Dad was on house arrest for two years and nearly sent to jail,” Cassie responded. This child couldn’t have been older than 12. She was vicious. Peggy and Steve exchanged a glance. Tony bit his lip. Bruce rested a hand on Tony’s arm. Peggy knew Tony was lashing out because of grief, but he still shouldn’t be in front of a child.

Scott turned away and walked over to some sort of toy container. Inside were an assortment of miniature cars. Peggy watched as he pulled a few vehicles out and inspected them.

“Did you hit something in the race car?” Scott questioned.

“Do you know what he’s talking about, Cassie? I don’t.” Luis then proceeded to be distracted by Thor raiding the fridge. He hurried over there.

“You hit something while Cassie was in the car?” Scott shouted.

Steve glanced down at his phone, quickly trying to change the subject and distract Scott. “Do you want to come with us, Scott? Nat says she can get us travel to New York.”

“You’ve already gotten in contact with Natasha?” Bruce spoke softly. He stepped towards them. He tilted his head and stared longingly at Steve’s phone.

Steve’s phone screen flashed again. Peggy could make out that it was Natasha texting him.

“We’re meeting Nat at 7 tonight at a private runway about an hour away from here,” Steve told everyone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy shit! This is my most subscribed story I've ever posted on here. Thank you so much! I really appreciate everybody who has read, commented, left kudos, and/or subscribed! Thank you guys! I am so glad people are enjoying this story! I can't even begin to describe how much this means to me.
> 
> We're starting to get into the part where they begin the fight against Thanos. I've got some tweaks I need to make in chapters 22-30. I've tried something I haven't done before, so I'm a little nervous about that and will probably end up editing it a bunch more. 
> 
> Thank you again to everybody! I look forwards to finishing up this fic and writing more stories about Peggy and co. in this series!


	21. August 29th and 30th 2018

The plane was tiny. Bruce, Peggy, Tony, Scott, and Thor were huddled up in the back of this plane. Or at least, Peggy assumed it was a plane. It looked drastically different than the planes Peggy had ever been on. She wasn’t surprised it was so strange. Everything in the future was bizarre and bright. She had thought she had seen it all the first time she was here.

“So, you and Tony are friends again?” Natasha was asking Steve. The pair stood in the front of the plane. The door was partly closed, only Natasha was visible from her position flying the plane. Based off Natasha’s reaction, Peggy was fairly certain Steve had shaken his head.

Tony looked up from his spot in the back room. His face fell. He ran a hand through his hair. He shifted slightly.

“Report for the last few months,” Steve said.

“It’s just me and Rhodey left. Clint’s entire family has been snapped. There were only four dust piles at his house. I haven’t been able to get in contact with him. Ross survived, unfortunately. He’s been making me report to what is left of the government, explaining our actions.”

“Bucky?” Steve spoke softly. Peggy nearly missed what he said. Bucky?

Natasha shook her head. “Just us. I’ve been trying to find vigilantes to rebuild the team. I’m getting close to finding Daredevil. He’s still out there. There has to be more. We can build a team.”

“We’ll do whatever it takes.”

 

-

 

“What happened to the rabbit?” Thor asked.

They were walking into the Avengers facility. Tony was immediately breaking off from the group. He opened his phone and began attempting to contact somebody. Bruce stopped for a moment to wait with Tony, but Tony simply waved him off. Before Peggy could say anything, he was headed towards the direction of his lab.

“Rocket the Raccoon?” Natasha asked. “The tree was snapped. He left to find the rest of his team. He gave me information to contact him, though.”

“Contact him,” Thor said.                                                     

Everyone’s eyes landed on the glass coffee table in the entry way. On top of it sat a giant axe. A huge grin spread across Thor’s face. He took three long strides towards it and wrapped his hand around the hilt. He hoisted it into the air.

Peggy supposed that should have been a dramatic moment. All attention focused on this man with an axe. Something else had caught Bruce’s attention, he wandered off past Thor. Scott was staring at his phone, he was presumably messaging Cassie.

Steve, Natasha, and Peggy were the only ones paying Thor any attention. Steve reached out, slowly lacing his fingers through Peggy’s hands. Peggy looked up at Steve. Natasha stood to the other side of him. Peggy could see Natasha’s eyes fall on their hands. The corner of her lip twitched upwards in some sort of smile.

“Thor, Scott,” Natasha said. “Why don’t we find you two some spare rooms to stay in.”

Scott took the hint. Natasha had to tap Thor’s arm to knock him out of the daze he was in. Thor didn’t set the axe down. Natasha guided them towards the maze of hallways.

Peggy and Steve stood alone for several minutes. Neither of them spoke.

“I should probably go find a room,” Steve said into the silence.

Peggy hesitated before she spoke. “I most likely still have mine. You are welcome to stay with me.”

Steve had a weird glint in his eyes. He stared at Peggy for a few moments. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Steve nodded his head.

 

-

 

 

Peggy sat in a woman’s apartment, waiting for her to return. Natasha had given them all the information she had on vigilantes. She said New York City had the most. That was the best place for them to visit in an attempt to get more recruits. She stared down at her phone. Tony had given her one before they left for the city. She had separated from Scott and Steve. The two had went to visit Jessica Jones’ apartment. She was deemed a higher risk and needed two people to attend to her than Peggy’s only lead on Daredevil.

Peggy stared at the incredibly undetailed piece of paper that listed their plan. There were a few major areas on their plan, and they had decided to divide and conquer to get the first few steps done.

Steps one and two were given to Natasha, Bruce, and Tony. First, they needed to build a machine that could get in contact with Rocket. Then, they would see who Rocket could recruit to join the battle. Most likely there were a few survivors on the Guardian’s team. Peggy really hoped that it was Drax and Mantis that had survived. They would be the most valuable. Doctor Strange most likely didn’t survive the snap as nobody had heard from him. He would have returned to Earth if he was able to. He would have been so helpful. He knew the path they needed to take to beat Thanos. That was all they had. Their wonderful, awful, not at all put together plan. They shouldn’t have been rushing this. If Peter hadn’t died… If Pepper Potts hadn’t died… Tony would have been much more careful. He would have been more rational. Natasha had been a big help in creating the plan. She had been doing research while they were gone. She had come up with the most solid and only plan they had.

The woman’s apartment door opened. Peggy stood up. She raised both her hands in the air and stepped into the woman’s line of sight. The girl’s eyes widened. She immediately pulled a gun out of her purse and aimed it at Peggy’s chest. Peggy wasn’t concerned, she had a Kevlar vest hidden underneath her clothes.

“Ms. Karen Page,” Peggy spoke softly. “My name is Peggy Carter. I’m not here to hurt you. I’m here on behalf of the Avengers.”

“Oh yeah? Show me your power,” Karen snapped.

“I don’t have one,” Peggy told Karen. She wiggled her fingers as if to prove that was the case. “I’m here to ask you to get into contact with Daredevil. He would be valuable in helping us fight Thanos.”

Karen hesitated. She tilted her head. “What’s your plan to defeat Thanos? Can you bring back the people that were snapped?”

“We will get the Infinity Stones,” Peggy said. “We will do everything in our power to reverse the snap. It’s the only chance any of us have right now.”

Karen gnawed on her bottom lip. She slowly lowered her gun.

“If Daredevil shows up, will he be affected by the Accords?”

“Steve is the man who will lay down his life for the other guy. He will do anything in his power to protect his teammates. Daredevil will be under the protection of Steve. Tony Stark will have lawyers in place if the government decides to prosecute after.”

“I’ll… I’ll talk to Daredevil about it. How can he get in contact with you?”

Peggy pulled out the piece of paper. She flipped it over to the side that had Steve's number written on it. She held it at Karen, careful not to approach. Karen grabbed a pen and scribbled down the number.

“That’s Captain America’s direct line?” Karen asked.

Peggy nodded.

Karen closed her eyes, rubbing her forehead. She turned away from Peggy, dialing a number on her phone. Peggy couldn’t quite manage to make out what the name was before the screen turned black.

“Hey... uh,” Karen said softly when somebody answered. “I think I found a way that we may be able to bring Foggy back. Are you interested?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Of course I'm adding the Defenders. Somebody's gotta do them justice since Netflix screwed them over. I haven't finished season 3 yet, so this is kind of based off where he was in the middle of the season and I made assumptions that Karen will at the very least be able to get in contact with him. I'm sure the season ended completely different, but I don't want to spoil it for myself by going on the wiki. I also thought I posted this yesterday so my bad. 
> 
> We're in the end game now for this fic! 29 chapters of main story and an epilogue.


	22. September 1st, 2018

“Everybody has a gimmick,” Steve whispered to her that morning before everybody met up. He certainly wasn’t wrong.

Natasha, Bruce, and Tony had gotten in contact with Rocket. He was bringing back whoever he could find. He was due to arrive sometime today. They had even managed to get in contact with Thor thanks to Wong. Thor had found Valkyrie and the few Asgardian survivors. He should be making it back today as the Asgardians had already been on their way.

The handful of heroes were set to arrive today. It was a disappointingly small amount. The already small population of heroes had grown even smaller.

Steve stood in the kitchen of the compound. He had found some alcohol in an upper cupboard and was slowly sipping on it. Peggy was surprised to see that it was nearly relaxing him, having some sort of effect.

Natasha and Tony made their way into the room. Natasha had her blonde hair pulled back into a braid, Tony looked like he hadn’t slept in the week they’ve been in the future. Bruce was down in the lab, attempting to track the Infinity Stones. Scott was standing in the corner doing some sort of dance.

There was a rumbling noise, a ship landing out in the distant field. Tony’s suit slid over his body and he was heading towards them to see who it was. At the same time, Peggy could see cars headed up the driveway in the distance. Tony had shut off all cameras and guards in the facility. He had sent anybody who still works there home for the foreseeable future. It would just be the heroes here. Ross was probably fuming somewhere. Hopefully whatever was left of the government was blocking him from interfering.

The car was pulling up and parking in the grass. Natasha stared at it. There was a huge group of people, Thor and presumably Valkyrie and the Asgardians headed towards them from the ship.

“Shit,” Natasha muttered. “Does Thor expect us to take care of them all?”

A child clutched a doll to her chest. All in all, there were probably around 10-15 Asgardians following behind Thor, Valkyrie, and Tony. Tony had taken his mask off. Based off the look of pure annoyance on his face, Thor was expecting them to take care of everybody.

The car door opened and slammed. Somebody stepped out of the driver’s seat. He stared at the building. He reached inside the car and pulled out a sword. He began storming towards the building. Peggy reached down for her gun. This was no one on the list. Steve reached down, stopping her from aiming the gun.

The man stopped at the door. He typed in a code. It was the only security feature that Tony had kept in place. The doors slid open.

“Clint,” Natasha said. She had an expression Peggy had never seen on her. Natasha looked hopeful. “I didn’t think you got my message. Thank you for coming.”

The man grunted. “Nice to see you, Nat. Captain.”

Clint stopped short. He stared at Peggy, his eyebrows raised.

“Hi,” Scott said, waving slightly.

Then the Asgardians made it inside. Peggy waited behind the kitchen island. Everything was a blur. The Asgardians were scared, some crying. The little girl had blonde ringlets. She stared at everything with wide eyes. Finally, her eyes landed on Steve. She wouldn’t stop staring at him. Steve glanced at Peggy. He smiled slightly and then made his way towards the little girl. He knelt down and began talking softly to her. Tears streamed down her face.

The woman, Valkyrie, pushed her way towards the kitchen. She began slamming cupboards. After a few minutes, she found what she wanted. She pulled down a big bottle of alcohol. She took a giant swig. She burped. Valkyrie then noticed Peggy staring at her. She offered the bottle to Peggy.

“I’m fine,” Peggy said.

“Suit yourself,” Valkyrie shot back. She took another sip.

Other cars were pulling up. Peggy glanced down at her phone. She hadn’t realized it was already nearing the time for their other limited heroes to arrive.

Steve picked up the little girl. She had her head buried in his shoulder. She had stopped sobbing, but her body shook every so often. Valkyrie was stared at the kid and then took another sip. She seemed just as much at a loss on what to do with this child as Peggy did.

“What are your plans for the Asgardians?” Tony asked, storming up to them. Out of the corner of her eye, Peggy could see Scott opening the door for Karen and a man in a black sweatshirt and mask that covered the upper portion of his face. Daredevil tilted his head, listening intently to the room. Karen’s eyes widened when her eyes landed on Thor.

“They can stay here,” Thor said.

“We’ll all be gone, fighting Thanos,” Tony said slowly. “They can’t stay here without supervision.”

“They’ll be fine.” Thor brushed off Tony’s comment.

Tony rolled his eyes and rubbed his face. The corner of Daredevil’s mouth twitched upwards at the sight of Tony.

Two more people were knocking on the door, Scott was welcoming them. They were two women. The ones Scott and Steve had recruited. They were the last of the heroes. Things were not going to go well with Thanos when this was all they had. One of the women wore a leather jacket, the other had a sword strapped to her back.

“I thought you were dead,” said the first woman, looking at Daredevil. Peggy was fairly certain that this one was Jessica. The other was Colleen.

“Wasn’t that lucky,” Daredevil shot back. Karen shifted from her position by Daredevil, eying Jessica up.

This was going to go great.

 

-

 

Tony had sent all Asgardians to a different section of the compound. Karen volunteered to take care of the Asgardians. Of course, they had given all of the Asgardians the offer to fight with them against Thanos. Not one of them said yes. Thor had to pull Valkyrie aside and spend several minutes convincing her that this was her responsibility.

Nebula and Rocket had arrived. Nebula was the only person that Rocket had been able to find. Their goal of assembling a massive power house of all remaining heroes was slowly falling apart. Nebula’s head tilted at an odd angle. Then she spun sharply in another direction. She was inspecting the compound. Rocket trailed after her, rubbing his head. After a few minutes of rough introductions between everybody, Rocket went downstairs to help Bruce track the Infinity Stones. Peggy had heard the other Guardians and Thor talk about Rocket. She hadn’t expected Rocket to be a walking, talking raccoon. She wondered if there was an entire species of raccoons that talked like him or if he was an experiment.

It was the waiting game now for Bruce and Rocket to find where Thanos was hiding.

“Thanos is strong,” Steve was beginning to say.

“I will destroy Thanos,” Nebula spoke suddenly. This was the first time Peggy heard her do anything other than grunt. “I want nothing more than to make him suffer for everything that he’s done. He will pay. First, I will take off most of his head. His one weakness. I will leave him barely clinging to life. I will take off his hand next, then the leg, repeating everything he did to me. He will suffer.”

Peggy wasn’t completely sure how to react. She looked up at Steve. His eyes were wide. He gnawed on his lip. The rest of the room was completely silent. Everybody stared at Nebula.

“Nebula, we’ll work together to defeat Thanos. Our team’s goal is to use the Infinity Stones to bring back everyone he killed. The first step is to beat him. How can we all work together to stop him?” Steve questioned.

“I work alone,” Nebula muttered.

“Teamwork makes the dream work,” Scott helpfully added.

Steve ran his hands through his hair. “Nebula, Rocket, you both know Thanos. What do you know about the stones? How can we use them to our advantage?”

“The Soul Stone requires a trip to Vormir. Two go and only one returns. It’s the only stone that requires a sacrifice.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Double upload because the last chapter was pretty short! Next one is where they're off to find Thanos. I've been trying to keep the chapters spit into what day they happen on and because of that the next few will be longer.


	23. September 4th, 2018

They were not a team. Thor and Valkyrie seemed to have their own plans on fighting Thanos. Thor still listened to Steve’s orders, but it was clear he wasn’t absorbing the information. The people from New York City, were just there to try to save their friends’ lives. They seemed to not be overly interested in team morale, just vengeance. The issue was that they had to be entirely united to be able to defeat Thanos. They couldn’t risk one or two people going off on their own and thinking they have a better idea.

They didn’t have the time to remedy that.

Of course, they didn’t. Bruce and Rocket had managed to ping the location of the Infinity Stones. Wong was abandoning his post at the New York Institute to help them quickly travel to the location. Peggy wasn’t sure what exactly had caused Wong to leave, but she was thankful he did. They needed to be able to travel there quickly. It would have been a waste of time and dangerous to attempt to fly one of those ships’ half way across the galaxy.

They couldn’t wait any longer to defeat Thanos. There was a constant risk of him realizing they were coming. He could vanish and it would take Rocket and Bruce forever to find him again.

Natasha had given Peggy some sort of combat gear. It didn’t fit her well, but it did the job. That morning, Steve had braided her hair back, so it was flat against her head. He had done something similar for Natasha as well. He didn’t dare ask Colleen or Jessica if they wanted it.

Everybody was suited up and waiting. Wong stood there, staring at the coordinates that Bruce was showing him. Nobody spoke. Everybody understood that this was their last stand. Thanos would most likely be strong enough to defeat them. It was a losing battle. The only plan they had was to aim for the head and try to get the stones away from him.

At least they had a few others join them. Okoye and Rhodey had flown in.

Rocket had told them the story of ‘the dance off to save the galaxy.’ The Guardians had been able to somewhat control one stone with all of them combined. It seemed like one of them, a regular human, couldn’t withstand the stones by themselves. They would quickly die. It would require a group of them with the same goal. Everybody other than Nebula wanted to bring the universe back to what it was.

Rocket broke away from Bruce and padded over to where Peggy, Natasha, and Steve stood. He had some sort of microphone and box.

“I think you should send out a distress call. Maybe somebody will hear it and actually care,” Rocket said to Steve.

Steve nodded. Rocket climbed up to the kitchen counter and quickly set up his invention in front of Steve.

“Just say your name, code name, and coordinates,” Rocket slid a paper towards Steve which had the coordinates written down. “Don’t say who we are fighting. Thanos has supporters that may try to stop us.”

Rocket pressed the red button and gave Steve a thumbs up.

“My name is Steve Rogers. I am Captain America. I am from Earth. We are requesting backup.” Steve squinted and looked down at the paper. He rattled off the location. As soon as he finished, Rocket pressed the button.

It was a desperate shout into the void.

 

-

 

There were a few suns on this planet. They were scattered throughout the blue skies. They didn’t cause the planet to be overwhelmingly hot. The suns must have been farther away than their own. The planet was full of greenery. Wheat, presumably, reached up towards the sky. Other, unidentifiable plants were scattered across the world. In the middle of the wheat field, stood Thanos’ armor. It was some sort of makeshift scarecrow.

Nebula picked up one of the plants, it was shaped like some sort of fruit. She took a bite and immediately spit it out. Daredevil was the one standing next to her. He stared down at the chunk of Nebula’s food that had landed directly on his foot. Daredevil walked several paces away from the group. He knelt down, pressing his hand against the ground.

Peggy felt Steve’s fingers wrap around hers.

Everybody began slowly moving around. Scott stared up at the sky, squinting up at the multiple suns. Clint elbowed him.

“It’s just us and Thanos,” Daredevil said. “He noticed we’re here. He’s walking towards us.”

Tony began muttering and cursing.

“All right,” Steve said. “Wong, I want you out of the battle. Do everything you can to not get involved. Watch for somebody to steal the Soul Stone off of him and then take them to Vormir. Do not go directly for the stones, Avengers. Our goal is to incapacitate Thanos as much as we can. If somebody takes one stone too soon, he’ll use the rest of the stones on you. It is not worth the risk.”

Jessica cracked her neck. She squinted into the distance: a purple figure, slowly approaching.

Natasha looked back at Steve and Peggy. She smiled slightly at the pair. Steve moved to the front of the group. Tony stepped forwards to stand next to him. The rest of the Avengers organized themselves to stand behind them. Bruce was clutching his fists together to try and activate the Hulk. Valkyrie spoke softly to the Hulk, trying to coax him out.

“You ready, Cap?” Tony asked. The mask piece of his suit rose up as he spoke.

“Ready as I’ll ever be, Stark.”

Thanos was getting closer now. Probably a couple hundred yards away. Everyone took out their weapons. Out of the corner of Peggy’s eye, she saw Colleen’s sword begin glowing. Hawkeye had a determined look in his eyes. He had a sword aimed at Thanos. Everybody hated Thanos. Everybody had lost somebody.

Thanos’ pace slowed down even more. He walked with confidence, his shoulders rolled back. There was a smirk on his face. He had a different Infinity Gauntlet. This one was on his other hand. The stones were glowing.

Suddenly, Thanos was in the middle of them. The blue stone glowed on his glove. Valkyrie was thrown backwards, colliding with a tree. That was enough to startle the Hulk. Bruce’s form twisted, glowing green. His shirt tore away from his body.

Hulk roared something, Peggy couldn’t quite manage to make out what he was saying. He charged towards Thanos. Daredevil’s head tilted, his jaw dropped. Peggy was in awe, too. Steve had shown her a video of the Hulk while they were in bed last night. That was nothing compared to seeing the real thing in action.

Thanos’ vanished in a puff of blue. He appeared several feet away, behind the Hulk. The Hulk spun around and charged again. This time, the others jumped into action too. Valkyrie was fine, she stood up and began joining the fight. She aimed some sort of weapons on her wrists and began shooting at him. Peggy was doing the same. Enough people shooting at him would be a pesky distraction.

“I am impressed you managed to find your way back, Stark,” Thanos said.

“Yeah?” Tony said. He was flying up in the air. Rhodey was there too. They were both shooting some substance at him. “Go to hell.”

Thanos raised an arm to shield himself from the shots coming from above. Peggy aimed for his armpit. That was enough to annoy Thanos. He roared in anger. The Hulk pummeled him, throwing punches.

The glove began to glow.

“Don’t let him close his fist,” Tony shouted.

The Hulk didn’t follow orders. Nobody else was quite close enough.

The world irrupted in a purple explosion. The force threw everybody away from Thanos. Rhodey and Tony were able to stabilize themselves in the air quicker than everybody else.

Steve had landed next to Peggy. He closed his eyes. He must have not been as lucky as Peggy had been when she landed. He grunted.

“Are you okay?” Peggy demanded.

Steve jumped to his feet. “I could do this all day.”

Moments like that was when he simultaneously got on her nerves and made her love him even more.

Everybody was flying at him. Hulk was trying to sling Thanos around. Hawkeye was attempting to swing his sword towards Thanos’ glove. He wanted to destroy the gauntlet. Nebula was climbing him, aiming her own swords at his head. Scott was shrinking and growing, attempting to punch him.

It was a flurry of activity. Peggy was in the middle of it, trying to get her own shots at him too. She didn’t have much time to think. It was all instinct. She had to dodge the person next to her. She had to dodge Thanos’ movements. She had to get a hit in.

Thanos attempted to close his fist. Hawkeye shoved his sword between Thanos’ glove. Peggy heard the crunching of metal. Thanos lifted his glove and aimed a beam of pure purple at those in the sky.

Rhodey was knocked out of the air. Peggy could tell Tony was panicking. He hesitated, trying to see if Rhodey was okay. That was enough to allow Thanos to shoot another beam of energy. Tony pulled up his shield, but it still caused him to fly backwards.

“You’re no more than flies meant to entertain me on a dull day,” Thanos laughed. “The universe thanks me. You cannot fight Death.”

Another purple blast. This time it was stronger. Steve was by Peggy in an instant, holding his two shield fins up to protect them from the blast. Thanos swung his arms towards Jessica. She caught the punch. Her feet slid backwards through the dirt. Natasha was attempting to electrocute him with her widow’s bites. She was trying to help Jessica.

Thanos closed his fist. Natasha’s sticks faded into bubbles. He swung his gloved hand at Jessica and knocked her to the ground.

Okoye’s eyes widened.

It was a back and forth. Thanos used his various powers and everybody attacked him with everything they had. At one point, Thor was summoning his lighting, Rocket was creating explosions, Nebula was swinging her swords.

They went down one by one. Peggy was losing track of the order. Hawkeye, Rhodey, Jessica, Colleen, Rocket, and Valkyrie were all down. Peggy didn’t know if they were all dead or if there were some survivors. Nobody had the time to check. It felt like they had been battling for hours. The suns had moved in the sky above them, trading places.

Thanos headbutted the Hulk. Hulk staggered backwards. A beam of purple and blue shot towards the Hulk. He was then being dropped to the ground from a portal that opened a hundred feet in the air above them. He didn’t get up.

Scott had been crawling all around Thanos. The Pym Particles didn’t work to shrink Thanos, but whenever he tried it left huge welts on his skin. Now that Thanos was free from the Hulk, he was able to pluck the tiny Scott off of him. He squeezed Scott in his fingers. He then flicked him aside. Scott went flying, growing back to regular size. He groaned loudly.

“Stay down,” Steve shouted.

Peggy had gotten lucky. She knew so many of these people were stronger than her. She had managed to dodge and withstand all of Thanos’ attacks so far. He had been overwhelmed.

Nebula was screaming, charging towards him again. Thanos swatted her away like a fly.

“Gamora always was the better of you two. She wouldn’t have been so foolish,” Thanos said.

Steve staggered backwards. He stood next to Peggy. He gasped for breath.

Daredevil jumped away from where he had been hitting at Thanos’ feet. He pulled Okoye back with him.

Everybody froze. The fighting paused. There was something coming towards the planet. A beam of gold shooting towards Thanos.

It was a person. They shot towards Thanos. They pushed Thanos off of his feet, grinding him against the dirt for several yards towards Peggy and Steve.

Thanos laid on the ground, stunned.

“Captain America?” Called out the person. Her helmet dematerialized. Steve raised his head, stepping towards her. “I’m Captain Marvel. I heard your radio transmission. I’m from Earth. I knew Nick Fury. Did he survive the snap?”

“He’s dead,” Natasha shouted out. Everybody was staring in shock at Captain Marvel, Steve opened his mouth to say something to her.

Peggy didn’t pay attention. Thanos was groaning, rubbing his face with his non-gloved hand. Peggy took off running. She slid across the ground towards Thanos.

The Zero Matter was like a warm, sunny day compared to the pain she felt when she grabbed the Soul Stone out of his glove. At that moment, Nebula was pouncing on Thanos and Thor had Storm Breaker aimed towards him.

The Soul Stone consumed her, burning her hands. She stared at the golden ball that rested in her hands.

“Wong,” Steve yelled.

She felt Steve whip her off the ground. She heard Thanos yell. She could see him stagger to his feet and begin to charge towards them. The last thing she saw was somebody new, a woman in black robes.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So slight spoilers for what's coming next if you've done any comic research on all the shit Thanos has pulled ~~~ I ended up taking inspiration from the comics and putting my own spin on it. So that'll give everyone a hint for what happens next.


	24. September 4th, 2018

The next thing she knew they were in another location.

This one was dark, cold. There were no suns here. A mountain loomed up over them. A staircase that led up the mountain was only a few feet away from them. A ghost floated at the base of the stairs. Peggy stared at it. Under it’s hood, Peggy could see red cheek bones jutting out.

“Peggy,” Steve was saying to her. He picked the gem out of her hands. He slid his shield fins off of his arms and used them as a sort of container for the stone. “Are you okay?”

Peggy quickly dropped her hands, hiding the palms against her mud-soaked pants. She nodded. She couldn’t rip her eyes away from the ghost. He slowly lowered his hood. His cloak dangled, floating above the ground. Steve was looking directly at her. He was too worried. He hadn’t noticed who was watching them.

“Schimidt,” Peggy breathed out.

Steve spun around. His eyes landed on the Red Skull. He paled.

“Captain America, Agent Carter,” the Red Skull said. He recognized them. “I am the keeper of the Soul Stone.”

Steve and Peggy both shot to their feet. Steve clutched the stone in one hand and his other was balled into a fist. Peggy widened her stance.

“I do not live that life any longer. I can guide you to the possession of the Soul Stone or you can leave Vormir, Captain Rogers and Agent Carter.”

Steve lunged towards the Red Skull. His fist passed right through the Red Skull’s body. Peggy reached for her gun only to find that she must have left it on the other planet. She darted towards the Red Skull too. She attempted to punch him. It made her feel better.

“If you want to gain control of the Soul Stone, you shouldn’t waste time trying to kill somebody who is already dead. I am trapped to this planet, it is my punishment. Thanos will be here shortly after he murders your friends.”

“And you’ll help us?” Steve sneered.

Peggy saw a strange look in Steve’s eyes. She couldn’t quite figure out what it meant. It was different than his usual determined glint or puppy dog eyes. Steve took a step back, gnawing on his lower lip.

“I am destined to guide any who want to attempt the trial of the Soul Stone.”

“The trial?” Peggy repeated, unimpressed.

The Red Skull nodded. He began floating up the incline. Peggy and Steve were at a loss of what to do. They just knew they were running out of time. Peggy followed him first. Steve’s freehand wrapped around hers. Nebula’s words about a sacrifice ran through her head.

 

-

 

“The stone requires a sacrifice of a loved one,” Red Skull said. He was floating near the edge of the cliff. Peggy and Steve stared down. It was a steep drop. Peggy could just make out flat ground with a circle etched into it. There was a blob of green. That must have been Gamora.

“Peggy, I—” Steve began to say.

“Absolutely not,” Peggy snapped. She knew Steve. She knew he was going to do his self-sacrificing bullshit. “I won’t lose you again.”

The Red Skull chuckled. They both ignored him. Steve tucked the Soul Stone and it’s shield carrier under his arm. He grabbed Peggy’s hands in hers. He had his eyebrows arched. His eyes glistened. The corner of his mouth tilted up.

“Don’t give me that look,” she whispered.

“Peggy, it has to be me. You have a future. You’re supposed to go home, work with Howard and make Shield. When I got out of the ice, I was lost. You were there, in a nursing home in DC. You helped me find my way. You have a husband. A life in 1955. You can’t die here. It could completely destroy the future.”

“That could be for the best. It could stop Thanos from coming,” she shot back. She clung to Steve’s hands. She wouldn’t let him do this. Not here.

“It won’t. It’ll just make him impossible to defeat without Shield. Shield’s what brought the Avengers together. I never would have been found without it. I never would have been found without you.”

Steve’s arms wrapped around her, pulling her into a hug. He rested his head against her head. She tried to blink away the tears. Steve had already made up his mind. They had already wasted too much time. Thanos would be coming any moment. He held her like that. He didn’t let go.

Finally, the Red Skull spoke. He must have been growing impatient. “The Stone requires one person to sacrifice another.”

Steve pulled away from Peggy. He glared at the Red Skull. Peggy reached upwards, trying to wipe a tear off his face.

“There’s another way,” Peggy spoke quickly. “There has to be.”

Steve let go of her. He gingerly set the Soul Stone and Shield to the ground near the ledge of the cliff, the opposite side of where the Red Skull stood. He took a few steps back, putting his heels against the edge of the ledge.

He took her hand and pressed it against his chest. She could feel how fast his heart was beating.

“I love you, Peggy,” Steve whispered.

“Don’t you dare say that to me now,” she hissed. She could feel the tears streaming down her face.

He looked her in the eyes. He opened his mouth, about to say something else.

The ground shook. Peggy heard a loud eruption. The clouds were streaked with blue.

“Thanos has arrived,” Red Skull said, smirking.

Steve closed his eyes. He took a shaky breath. He pulled something out of his pockets, shoving it at her. She took it with her free hand. She dropped it into her pocket without even looking at the object.

“Now,” Steve whispered.

She hesitated.

“Peggy, if we don’t do this, a lot more people are going to die,” Steve said.

Steve took her hand and placed it against his chest. She pushed him. He stared at her, a sad smile on his face. He fell backwards. Peggy turned away, covering her hand with her mouth. Peggy sobbed, struggling to catch her breath. She couldn’t bare to watch him fall. In the distance, Peggy could hear Iron Man’s armor whirling. Somebody was shouting. It didn’t mask her from hearing Steve’s body hit the ground with a massive crunch.

Peggy fell to her knees. She scrambled towards the Infinity Stone. She held it with one hand and slid one of Steve’s shields on her arms. She tossed it to her other hand and did the same with the other one. The Soul Stone no longer ate at her hands. It no longer hurt to be held.

“The burns on your hands are almost gone,” Red Skull stated.

She hated Steve for making her do this. She hated him for sacrificing himself. She hated him for repeating nearly the same things to her as the first time he sacrificed himself. She hated him for making her love him.

Peggy picked up the largest rock off the ground and hurled it at the Red Skull. It phased through him.

A strange look passed across the Red Skull’s face. He darted off, flying back into the mountain. Behind where he once stood was something strange. The woman from the battle field earlier. Her skin was like ivory, stretched tightly across her face. Black robes spread around her. Peggy didn’t move. The woman lowered the hood. Black hair tumbled and fell around her face in some sort of short haircut.

“This is not balance,” the woman said to Peggy. “I have a deal.”


	25. September 4th, 2018

“Steve made the sacrifice,” Wong stated.

Peggy nodded. She didn’t trust herself to speak. She reached in her pocket, grabbing what Steve had handed her. It was his compass, the one he had used during the war. She needed something to put the Infinity Stone in. He must have meant for her to use the compass as a carrier. It was just large enough to fit the tiny stone. She popped it open. The picture of her from the war stared back at her. The picture that had gotten her in trouble when Phillips saw it in a newsreel and realized that they were in a relationship.

She set the stone inside and closed the compass.

“Do you know how to use it?” Wong asked.

Peggy felt herself stand up straighter. She’d avenge Steve. She’d save the universe.

“I haven’t the faintest idea. Where’s Thanos?”

Wong opened the portal at the bottom of the stairs, just around the first bend. She could hear everyone fighting. She felt the ground shake as Thanos used the Infinity Stones at people. Tony’s armor sounded damaged, the whirling was different, much more labored.

“Have you figured it out yet?” Wong questioned.

Peggy shook her head. She stepped out from her hiding place. Thanos was about 50 yards away. Captain Marvel was punching him, slinging pieces of the environment at him. Daredevil, Okoye, Thor, and Nebula were all still trying to fight him. Valkyrie must have been left on the other planet. Tony and Natasha were off to the side. Natasha had gotten trapped underneath the rubble. Tony was hoisting it up so she could wiggle out.

Thanos looked like he was actually being worn down by Captain Marvel and co. If only there were a hundred more of them ready to join in the ranks.

Thanos’ eyes landed on Peggy. He reached for Daredevil. Daredevil dodged, only to stumble slightly against the uneven ground. Thanos wrapped his hands around Daredevil’s shirt. He picked him up and tossed him across the rough ground.

Thanos froze, his jaw dropping open. His eyes landed on something behind Peggy. Peggy knew without looking that Lady Death was behind her.

Peggy found herself moving towards Thanos. She felt compelled. She couldn’t quite manage to stop herself. She took the compass out of her pocket. The Soul Stone had caused it to begin heating up. She wasn’t sure how, but she found herself gaining a better understanding of what the Soul Stone was and wasn’t capable of. She could feel how heavy it had become now that she held ownership of it. She could feel half the universe trapped inside. She could feel it convincing her to move towards Thanos. It wanted more. The metal burned her hands. She kept walking towards him. She knew she wouldn’t be able to handle using it. It would eat her alive. If she could incapacitate Thanos for even a moment, they could get the glove off. They could win. She didn’t know if Death would stick to her promise of keeping her alive.

Captain Marvel cracked her neck. She signaled something across the field at Tony.

“I sure as hell hope you have a plan, Peggy,” Tony’s voice rang out in her ear. She had nearly forgotten about the comm. Nobody had time to speak during their earlier battle. Peggy’s eyes landed on where Tony had been. Natasha wiggled out of the rubble and stood there. She clutched her arm. Tony was hovering in the air. “We’ll make a distraction. Do what you need to do with the stone, we’ve got one shot.”

Captain Marvel leaped towards Thanos, her fists glowing. Tony flew at him, firing the last of his missiles.

Peggy waited, counted to three. Then she ran. Wong opened a portal in front of her. She ran into it. Peggy found herself flying through the air. Tony backed off. He shouted something that Peggy couldn’t make out. She popped open Steve’s compass and slammed the stone into his forehead. The momentum of herself and Captain Marvel was enough to cause him to fall on his back. Peggy perched on his chest, forcing the stone into his head.

He smirked at her. “Did you really think that would stop me? You expected to wield the stones when it wasn’t your destiny.”

Thanos moved his hands to push her off.

The world erupted into orange bursts. She found herself standing up right, facing Thanos. Everything around them was orange. They stood in water, probably half an inch. It surrounded them. They were inside the Soul Stone.

Thanos spun away from her. “Gamora?”

Peggy waited. A young girl stood there. She had her hair braided back. She stared up at Thanos, she was speaking. Peggy couldn’t make out what she was saying. Thanos knelt, holding his hand out to the girl. Peggy stepped forwards, about to interject. Gamora’s eyes landed on Peggy, her mouth twitched upwards.

A hand landed on Peggy’s shoulder. She spun around, about to swing at whoever was behind her.

“Hey,” Steve breathed.

Her breath caught in her throat. Her eyes moved downwards from where she was used to looking up at him. He had lost the serum. He was back to his height of barely 5 feet. His shoulders were uneven from the curving of his spine. It was the Steve she had the picture of. He looked as if he had just stepped out of the Camp. He wheezed slightly from his asthma.

“You’re trapped in the stone,” Peggy said. A fate worse than death. She could feel the torment of those who were snapped digging away at her insides. Peter was in there, somewhere.

“I’m okay,” Steve promised her. “It had to be this way.”

“You’ve always been so bloody dramatic,” she whispered.

Steve grinned at her. The same toothy smile she had rarely seen over the years. He opened his mouth, about to speak.

“Did you expect this distraction to work?” Thanos roared. He staggered away from Gamora. “I have Death’s blessing; the chaos is needed.”

Peggy spun around. “I’m afraid you don’t anymore.”

Steve’s hand rested on Peggy’s upper arm. It felt different than his usual touch. It caused her skin to tingle. Thanos stepped forwards. He tilted his head, arching an eyebrow. Behind him, Gamora looked panicked. She reached up, grabbing for him. Thanos yanked his arm away from her. Peggy watched as blood began to trickle down Thanos’ head.

Somebody grabbed Peggy, pulling her backwards. Away from Steve. Away from Thanos.


	26. September 4th, 2018

“Carter,” Natasha shouted. Peggy felt herself being dragged across the ground. She groaned from the pain. Her body burned. It felt like she had been eaten and spit out. Black spots danced in her vision, making her unable to see what was happening. After what felt like an eternity, her vision cleared.

Thanos roared. He stumbled forwards. He swung wildly at Tony, knocking him out of the sky. Peggy stared at Thanos' hand. The glove was gone. Thor clutched it to his chest. He was running towards Peggy and Natasha from the other side of the battle field.

“Where’s Steve?” Natasha demanded. Somebody else had shown up next to them. Okoye. She rested a hand on Peggy’s arm. Peggy could hear her panting. Peggy turned her head to Natasha. Blood crusted the side of Natasha’s face. Natasha was staring at her. Peggy hesitated. She didn’t know what to say. She didn’t know how to explain it.

“Steve—” Peggy began to say.

Natasha rubbed her hands over her face. “Of course.”

Nebula was screaming. Thanos was weaker now without the glove. The Soul Stone had disoriented him slightly. He was still stronger than Nebula, he knew her weaknesses. He was taunting her, speaking quickly and laughing. He punched, she dodged. Nebula rolled, Thanos kicked out at her. It was the two of them, going back and forth.

Captain Marvel was in the air, swinging at Thanos. Peggy could tell her powers were fading from exhaustion.

Thor was still running towards them. He had abandoned Storm Breaker and merely clutched the glove to his chest. Thanos spotted Thor and kicked Nebula away. She went flying, skidding across the ground. Peggy thought she heard a sob escape Nebula.

Wong opened a portal in front of Thor. He jumped without hesitation. The portal opened next to Peggy. Thor jumped out. He took in the three women. He had a desperate look on his face.

“You’re the only one other than Thanos who can wield the Soul Stone now, yes?”

“Yes,” Peggy managed to get out. She could feel the Soul Stone burning at her hand.

“Wong,” Natasha shouted. “Get them out of here.”

“The farm planet,” Peggy spoke quickly, “we need to go there.”

Lady Death had told Peggy to return to Wakanda. She said the Scarlet Witch would be on Wakanda and she could destroy all of the stones. It would prevent Thanos from coming after the stones again. If they immediately destroyed the stones, Peggy wouldn’t have the chance to release Steve. Steve was trapped in the Soul Stone. If she let Scarlet Witch destroy it, it would be like Steve dying a third time. She wanted to attempt to return the Soul Stone to Vormir. She wanted to try releasing Steve from it so he could die in peace. There would be no way he could live. His body was twisted and mangled beyond repair from the fall.

The portal opened. Thor wrapped his arm around Peggy’s waist. He hoisted her off the ground and threw them both into the portal.

The pair hit the ground with a thud. This planet had been decimated. The trees were fallen. The wheat scorched away by fire. Peggy could see the corpses of the other Avengers scattered around on the field. Scott was alive though. They must have forgotten him here when they went to Vormir. He ran up to them, his eyes wide with panic.

“Did we win? You guys have the glove,” Scott slid towards them through the mud.

Thor looked up at Scott. His eyes flickered down to the glove. Scott’s jaw dropped. He saw something behind Peggy and Thor.

“We need to use the stones now,” Peggy said. She needed to save the universe before Death stopped them and sent them to Wakanda. Then they could call Wong. They could be a step ahead of Lady Death.

“That’s Lady Death,” Thor said, staring over his shoulder at the woman. “A myth.”

Peggy clutched the Soul Stone in one hand. She slid her other into the glove. It was laughably large for her. She could just spread her fingers and stick them into each of the fingers of the glove. Thor didn’t hesitate. He stuck his hand in after hers. They didn’t talk, they didn’t discuss what they were going to do. Thor closed his eyes. Peggy watched the glove begin to glow. She focused on releasing the Souls from the Stone. Thor grunted loudly. The world around them began to glow. Colors swirled around them. Scott said something. Peggy couldn’t focus on what he said.

She stared down at hers and Thor’s arms. She could see the different stone colors running through their veins. She saw Thor’s other hand sparking.

Peggy fell back against the muddy ground. She tried to focus on her breathing. She now understood why the Zero Matter had driven Whitney to the point of insanity.

The planet was different. Peggy heard a bird chattering in the distance.

The gauntlet had been nearly burnt to a crisp. It barely managed to remain a container for the stones. Thor collapsed, clutching the gauntlet to his chest. Peggy could hear him breathing heavily.

The Soul Stone felt different. It didn’t feel heavy like it had before. She could tell there were only two left inside.

Scott extended his hand to Peggy to help her sit up right. She stared down at the burns on her arm that had been inside the glove. Nobody said anything. Peggy stared down at her hands. They were smoldering. The three sat on the ground for several long minutes.

“You can save those who died here,” Death spoke finally. She moved –glided? —to sit next to Scott. Scott’s eyes widened. He was staring at the way her flesh seemed to melt into her bones. “Rewinding time for them a few hours shouldn’t be difficult. It’ll restore the balance. It’ll be like nothing happened.”

Thor stood up. He took the glove with him. Scott moved. Peggy clasped onto his arm. She could feel the world spinning. Everything kind of shook. He gingerly stuck his hand in the glove. He reached forwards, a strange, glowing green pattern appeared in front of him. He turned his fist. The green tendrils spread out across the field. They snaked their way around Peggy and Scott’s bodies. It avoided them and engulfed the others.

Peggy watched in awe as their bodies reversed through time, being restored. They sat up one at a time, varying on the order they had died. Everybody stared up at Thor in confusion. They didn’t realize what had happened to them. They didn’t remember dying.

“Now go kill Thanos,” Death whispered. The corner of her mouth twitched upwards. None of the ones that had just came back from the dead seemed to notice her appearance.

“Wong,” Thor roared. As if on cue, a portal opened.

Everybody was staggering to their feet. They looked around wildly in confusion. The Hulk had transformed into Bruce at some point. Scott helped Peggy to her feet and wildly motioned for Bruce to come over to them. Thor was encouraging everybody to go through the portal to return to the battle. They went with varying levels of vigor for the upcoming fight.

As soon as Bruce came over, Scott let go of where he was grasping on to Peggy’s arm to keep her from falling over. Bruce took Peggy’s arm and wrapped it around his shoulder. She didn’t resist. The world was spinning too badly. She knew she couldn’t stand up on her own. Bruce reached his arm down towards her legs. He was about to swoop her up into his arms.

“Don’t you bloody dare,” she hissed.

Bruce’s eyes widened. Everybody else had already gone into the portal. It was waiting on the two of them.

“Did we win?” Bruce asked. He was staring down at the Infinity Stone that was resting in her hand.

“Nearly,” Peggy said.

Bruce set Peggy down on a rock. He stepped forwards and began attempting to summon the Hulk.

“I believe you’re benched,” Peggy said.

Bruce rubbed his hands over his face. He collapsed on the rock next to her. “Yeah. You’re right. Hulk’s not happy.”

The other Avengers had jumped into the fight. Tony was still going; his armor was having difficulty stabilizing himself. But now Rhodey was with him. Peggy felt a warm feeling bubble in her chest. They were going to win. Thor staggered over to them. He plopped the Infinity Gauntlet in Peggy’s lap. He then jogged away, grabbing Storm Breaker from off the ground.

This was Peggy’s chance. She clutched the gauntlet. She stood up shakily and plopped right back down. The world was still spinning.

“Bruce,” Peggy said. “Steve is dead. I need you to help me get to him. He’s not far.”

“Cap’s dead,” Bruce said, his mouth falling open.

Bruce immediately helped Peggy to her feet. He wrapped her arm around his shoulders. They began stumbling to the other side of the hill. Peggy had no doubt that they would kill Thanos. Bruce and herself weren’t much help on the sidelines.

Peggy heard a portal. She glanced behind her. The other Guardians were jumping out. Quill was whooping and shouting.

“We’re so undead, bitch!” Peggy heard one of them shout.

Then a portal opened in front of them. Peggy staggered backwards, pulling Bruce with her. Doctor Strange stepped out. Strange’s eyes landed on the Infinity Stones that Peggy was carrying.

“You need medical attention,” Strange said. “I’m surprised you managed to survive the stones. Even with Thor.”

“I’m fine,” Peggy snapped. She leaned against Bruce and took a step to encourage him to go around. He didn’t move. “I need to save Steve.”

“You’re not,” Strange said. He was inspecting Peggy’s arm. It was covered in burns from using the gauntlet. The burns were a strange, intricate pattern. She didn’t have time to inspect them now. Besides, they barely hurt. She needed to move before the adrenaline wore off.

“He’s right, Peggy,” Bruce said.

Peggy pushed away from him. She stumbled forwards. She used her free arm to steady herself against the side of the little mountain. Strange and Bruce both stared at her. Peggy heard footsteps approaching them from behind.

“You can’t play with life and death,” Strange said.

Peggy ignored him. She took a deep breath and kept shuffling towards Steve. It was probably another hundred yards at least to reach Steve. She couldn’t even see him yet from the way the rocks jutted out of the ground.

“I’ll take her,” Natasha said. She had run towards them. “You should join the fight, Strange. They could use the help.”

Natasha reached out, grabbing Peggy from the wall and supporting her. The pair took a step past Strange and Bruce. Doctor Strange sighed. He moved his arms faster than Natasha and Peggy could react. They fell downwards.

They only fell a couple inches. That was enough for Natasha to lose her grip on Peggy. Peggy hit the ground, sandwiching the Infinity Stones between herself and soft grass.

Natasha rolled Peggy over, grabbing the five stones in the gauntlet from her. She held them and sat next to Peggy.

“We’re in Wakanda,” Natasha told Peggy. “That dick.”

“He is,” Peggy said, agreeing with her. She wondered how Strange had known to send them here.

“I am Groot,” said a small tree. It approached them slowly. Groot was staring at the Infinity Stones.

This was too much for Peggy. She didn’t move from her spot in the grass. It was cool. A nice feeling. Her body felt like it was burning up. The adrenaline had worn off. She felt like she was dying. This was so much worse than when she had been shot during the war. Even worse than when she had been, as Howard jokingly called it after, shish kebabbed. Peggy closed her eyes. She just needed a moment of rest. A moment to get her barring.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow! I've already almost finished posting something that took around a year of work. That's crazy to think about. This has flown by so quickly. I am planning on writing more stories that will fit into this series. If you are interested, please check out the Intertwined series tag on this fic and subscribe! I'll give more details and what to expect for the series in the chapter notes in chapter 28 or 29. Within a week or two after finishing posting this fic, I plan on posting the next one shot, so keep an eye out! Thank you guys so much for reading!


	27. ???

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Two-hundred miles-per-hour with a blindfold on. Mama always asking, “where did I go wrong?” What’s up danger?”

“Good morning,” said a voice Peggy hadn’t heard in many years.

She rolled her head to the side, slowly opening her eyes. She was in some sort of massive, plush room. There were ornate curtains that hung from the large window. Bucky sat in one of the nicest chairs she had ever seen. Bucky’s hair had grown out, he had it thrown up into a sloppy bun. Peggy blinked. He only had one arm. Him coming back from the dead didn’t surprise her. Nothing did. Nobody stayed dead anymore. Steve wouldn’t.

“A surprise to see you here, Sargent Barnes,” Peggy said.

“Bucky,” he corrected quickly. “I’m not a soldier anymore.”

“None of us are,” Peggy responded. She struggled to sit up. She felt light. She felt surprisingly pain free.

“Strange told everybody you’re stuck here,” Bucky said. “You rewrote time?”

“An unfortunate consequence, but it was well worth it.”

“They said Steve sacrificed himself so you could use that stone,” Bucky said, softly. He wasn’t looking at her. He stared at a wall decoration when he spoke.

Peggy pushed the covers away. She wasn’t wearing what she had fought Thanos in. She was wearing some loose pants and a t-shirt. She felt underdressed. Still, she crawled out of bed. Bucky stood too, he ran his hand through his hair. He shifted. Bucky reached in his pocket and pulled out a phone. He began slowly tapping away on it. Not as comfortable with the technology of the future as Steve was when she watched him use phones.

“Do you happen to know where the Infinity Stones went to?”

Bucky shook his head. Peggy walked around the room. She was searching for a pair of shoes. There was none of that, but her backpack had been carefully set down near one of the walls. At least she hadn’t lost that. She lifted the bed spread up, checking underneath for a pair of shoes. Yet again, there were none.

“They’re in Shuri’s lab. Wanda is destroying them tonight.”

“I’ll be back in a few hours,” Peggy spoke briskly. She spotted her boots neatly tucked under Bucky’s chair. “Will you cover for me?”

Bucky nodded. The corner of his mouth twitched upwards. “Go right, three halls down, left, then down the stairs.”

She picked her boots up and made her way towards the door. She turned to look back at Bucky. She wondered what had happened to him. The only orders he had ever followed were Steve’s. She was surprised he hadn’t argued with her. He gave a little wave. Then he paused. He pulled a phone out of his pocket. He slid his finger across the screen. He waited, listening to whoever was on the other line.

“No, Natasha,” Bucky said. “Carter isn’t awake yet.”

 

-

 

She left the boots out in the hallway. She wanted her story to seem believable. Nobody was going to steal Infinity Stones with only a pair of thin socks on. She just needed three. The rest could be dammed. She needed to be able to transport herself there, rewind time, and release him from the soul stone. She knew that it was a huge probability that they would eat her alive. She knew it was foolish. She just couldn’t leave him there to rot knowing that there was something she could have done.

Part of her knew Howard would hate her if he knew what happened. She had left Steve. He was worried about her dying here and ruining the flow of time. It ended up not being the case. The universe sorted itself out and she was trapped here due to the stones linking her here. Lady Death had told her something major like this would be a rare occurrence where time was rewritten. Everything changed. If she went home, she risked unwriting everything and everything they accomplished would be undone. It was like she had never existed. When she had originally arrived in the future, Tony had asked like he knew her at one point. If she spoke to him now, she knew he wouldn’t remember her in his childhood. She was never there.

If Howard knew she had caused Steve’s death, he would never forgive her. This was her rationale. Her reasoning for why she should do this.

The door parted in the middle, sliding into the walls. Peggy stepped inside. The lights were dimmed. Peggy could see five metal orbs sitting on the table. She approached, hurrying towards them. There was a clear panel in the top, allowing anyone to see which stone was which. She bent forwards. She needed the Cube, Time Stone, and Soul Stone.

Peggy reached out, picking up the orb that contained the Soul Stone.

“How did you get in here?” Doctor Strange demanded. He came out of the only side room. He didn’t have on his usual, dramatic choice of clothing. Today, he was wearing scrubs.

“The door opened?” Peggy questioned. She slowly lowered the Soul Stone to her side. She was hoping he didn’t see it.

“Put that back,” Doctor Strange said, staring at the Soul Stone.

“Sergeant Barnes said they’re being destroyed tonight,” Peggy said. She forced her voice to waver slightly. “I need to say goodbye to Steve before he’s killed.”

“You’ve already caused enough damage by being here and rewriting time,” Strange snapped.

Peggy blinked, forcing tears to well up. She would take these stones by any means necessary. However, the odds of her being able to beat Strange and his magic were small. Strange’s nose twitched. He held his ground.

“She’s stuck in the future alone,” Natasha said, rounding the corner and entering from another section of the lab. “Her entire career and life are gone, Strange. Everybody she knows is dead. At least let her get closure and say goodbye to Steve before Wanda destroys the stones.”

Ouch. Honestly, Peggy hadn’t thought about her life yet. Her one goal was to save Steve. Peggy quickly wiped the tears from her eyes. She straightened her spine and stared at him, sadly.

“The Winter Soldier,” Doctor Strange countered.

“A shell of the man she once knew,” Natasha responded. “You’ve met who he is now. I’m sure you’ve heard the Howling Commando stories about what he used to be like.

“Shit!” Shouted a woman from the room Strange had came from. “Doctor Strange, hurry!”

Strange looked between Peggy and Natasha and the woman from the other room. “I expect the stone to stay in here. You have five minutes.”

Strange rushed into the other room. The doors snapped shut behind him.

“What’s your plan?” Natasha asked, smirking at her.

“My plan is to say my goodbyes,” Peggy said. “Are there any messages you would like me to pass on?”

“Bullshit. I listened to Steve tell stories about you for years. I know you wouldn’t give up after a slap on the wrist. Which stones do we need?”

“Soul, Time, and the Cube,” Peggy whispered, eyes landing on the door Doctor Strange was behind.

Natasha picked up the two other Infinity Stones. She dropped them in her canvas bag. She took a step towards the door. “Relax, Shuri is in on this. Why do you think the door was unlocked? She’ll keep him occupied for at least ten more minutes.”

Peggy held the Soul Stone to her chest. On the off chance that Strange did exit the room, she wanted to make it look like she was about to use the stone. Natasha circled around the table, winking at Peggy. With that, she was making her way out the door. Peggy quickly followed, grabbing her boots as they went.

They rounded the corner to find two people standing there. Peggy recognized them from Steve’s drawings. The man was Sam. The woman was Wanda. They were both dressed casually, not like they were about to go rescue Steve. Wanda stared blankly at Peggy. The corner of Sam’s mouth twitched upwards at the sight of her.

“Look who I ran into trying to steal an Infinity Stone. Can you believe her?” Natasha asked the two of them.

“I’m Sam Wilson, I used to be a pararescue airman in the 58th Rescue Squadron,” he told her, extending his hand. “Good to see you up and joining us.”

“Peggy Carter,” she said as she shook his hand. She didn’t elaborate on who she was. Her military experience had been 10 years ago. She had helped get rid of the SSR. She wasn’t even the Director of Shield anymore. She forced a smile on her face.

“What’s your plan?” Wanda questioned, suddenly.

Natasha glanced around the corner, peaking back at the lab entrance. She spun on her heel, frowning. She darted around a corner. The rest quickly followed.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had this all set up to post last night and then AO3 went down... I couldn't even save it as a draft rip.
> 
> Anyways, please let me know of any questions/comments/concerns in the comments down below! Thank you guys for reading!


	28. 2018?

Peggy stumbled and fell to the ground. She felt her knee collide with a rock. Wanda had managed to control the Infinity Stone enough to get them to Vormir. However, it was a bumpy ride. Peggy felt the Cube—Tesseract as everybody else called it—push and pull at her body. She had already felt weak, like the medicine was wearing off. This was enough to cause her to collapse.

When the spots faded from Peggy’s vision, she noticed the travel had taken a toll on the others as well. Wanda was gasping for breath. Sam lay down, staring up at the sky. Natasha stumbled to her feet as she wildly looked around.

“We need to hurry,” Wanda said. She staggered. She held her hands out as if to catch herself. Strange could be arriving at any moment. He had to have noticed they were gone by now.

Peggy pushed herself to her feet. She clutched the Soul Stone to her chest. She took off, quickly staggering to the other side of the mountain.

Peggy rounded the corner of the mountain. The others were quick on her heels. Peggy realized that they hadn’t seen this. There would be no way she could have prepared them for seeing Steve’s broken body. Gamora was right next to them. Steve had fallen and landed on her arm.

In the middle of the stone platform was a hole. It was the perfect size for the Soul Stone.

“We need to rewind time,” she explained. “It’s what Thor and I did on Thanos’ planet to save the others.”

Natasha plucked the Time Stone out of her bag. Wanda took it, popping open the canister and pulling it out. Peggy began walking towards the hole. She knelt. Peggy stared at the Soul Stone, watching it twist and push at the cage it was in. Peggy was going to attempt to release the souls from the stone.

“On my count,” Peggy told Wanda. “3…2…1…”

Wanda held out her arm. Green tendrils mixed with pinkish red. Wanda twisted her arm as if she was turning a dial. The tendrils formed a clock around Wanda’s hands. She turned it slowly. Peggy watched as the two bodies slowly reassembled. There was a painful popping noise as Steve’s arm snapped back into place.

Wanda stopped. She turned her head to Peggy.

Peggy opened up the Soul Stone container. She flipped it over, allowing the Soul Stone to fall into it.

Peggy’s heart sank. Nothing happened. Perhaps Thor’s story was wrong. Sacrifices to the Soul Stone couldn’t be saved. She stared at Steve, hoping for his chest to start rising and falling. She heard Natasha shakily breath out.

Nobody moved.

The world erupted in a gold explosion. Peggy felt herself being pushed back from the others. The Soul Stone burned, pulling at her body. The burn marks from before started scorching up her right arm. She twisted her body, trying to struggle to her feet. The gold had faded. Steve’s chest still wasn’t moving. He seemed unphased by it. Sam and Natasha were frozen in place. They had been blown off their feet by the explosion. Natasha had her arms covering her face, she looked as if she had been frozen when she was sliding across the ground. Sam had been thrown off his feet. He was suspended in midair. He had turned his body in a way to brace himself for the upcoming fall.

Wanda wildly stared at them and then looked at Peggy. Then, Wanda’s eyes fell on something behind her. Peggy turned her head, peeling herself off the ground to stare at the figure behind her.

Lady Death stood there. The skin from earlier had melted away. She was merely a skeleton now.

“Congratulations, Carter,” Death spoke. Her voice had no accent. “The balance to the universe has been restored. Thanos is dead. As per our deal, I will no longer protect you from the Infinity Stones. Anymore prolonged use on your part will result in your instantaneous death.”

Wanda held the Time Stone in her hands. She rushed forwards to stand by Peggy’s side, as if in her defense. Peggy watched as Wanda’s fists glowed red. Peggy held out her hand. Lady Death wasn’t her enemy yet.

“You stated you would owe me a favor if I succeeded,” Peggy reminded Death.

Death smiled, shaking her head. “You have two choices. The two souls in the stone have been released, I can return them to their mortal bodies. Or, I can restore your life once in the future. I can bring you back from the dead once.”

“Return Steve and Gamora’s souls,” Peggy said. She didn’t care about Death’s second choice. It was worthless to her. Wanda looked back and forth between the two. She was clearly confused as to what was going on. Frankly, Peggy didn’t know how to explain it.

“Humans are all the same,” Death said. “You think with emotion, not logic.”

Death stepped forwards, brushing past Peggy and Wanda. The air cooled as she walked by. She knelt at the two corpses. Lady Death breathed out. A white breath flew from her lips. Part of it when into Steve’s mouth, the other went to Gamora.

Lady Death vanished. The world unfroze. Wanda stared at Peggy, her mouth hanging open.

Steve gasped, shooting up right. He took heavy breaths. Gamora woke much more calmly. She slowly sat up. Gamora took in the people. Her eyes landed on Steve. She stared at his chest. Her eyes widened ever so slightly. Sam was splayed across the ground, quickly picking himself up. Natasha stared at Peggy and Wanda for several long moments. She spun towards Steve. Peggy watched a smile slowly spread across Natasha’s face.

“Did we win?” Steve asked.

“Nebula killed Thanos,” Natasha told him. “Peggy and Thor brought half the universe back.”

“Is Nebula alright?” Gamora demanded.

“I think she’s going to need a new hobby, but other than that she’s fine. The Guardian’s all left Wakanda yesterday.”

Steve pushed himself to his feet. He stumbled slightly. Sam was the closest. He had already stood and brushed the dirt off of him when he went flying. He extended his hand to Steve. They then did some sort of awkward hug where they patted each other’s backs. Natasha was the next closest. He hugged her. Wanda left Peggy’s side. She darted across the distance and threw her arms around Steve. Peggy watched as Steve’s eyebrows shot up. He lifted her up in the air as he hugged her.

Peggy stood at a distance. She watched as Steve, Natasha, Sam, and Wanda all excitedly greeted each other. Gamora also looked like she felt out of place. She made eye contact with Peggy. The corner of her mouth twitched up ever so slightly.

Steve pulled away from his group. He took a step towards Peggy.

When they were in New Jersey all those years ago, Steve had given Peggy a look that was a mixture of confusion, shock, and awe the first time he saw her there. That was the same look he gave her now. He ran towards her, crossing the distance between them.

Peggy was fairly certain she felt tears began prickling at her eyes.

Steve wrapped his arms around her waist. Steve tilted his head, staring at her. Peggy always forgot how blue his eyes are until she stared right into them. He slammed his lips against hers.

After all this time, they were together.

Finally.


	29. September 17th, 2018

Their little adventure had slightly delayed the Infinity Stones being destroyed by a handful of days. Steve, his friends, Tony, and all of the other Avengers had been brought into video conference hearings over the ordeal. Peggy’s understanding was that certain people were being left off of the official report. It was like Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Colleen were never there. Peggy hadn’t been as lucky. Tony promised to greatly under exaggerate her actions there. It would protect her, he said. She needed to be on the record as being alive and from the past so Tony could work on getting proper documentation. She needed a birth certificate, a National Insurance number, a green card if she wanted to continue living in America, and probably a million other things. Steve had stood next to Tony as he explained all of this. Steve’s arms were crossed over his chest. He would nod in agreement occasionally. If they acted like she had just been along for the ride, she wouldn’t be prosecuted as badly as they will most likely be. They all just needed to agree on the story of events. Peggy had tried to argue this. She would take the fall with them. Tony shook his head. Peggy didn’t care about receiving credit for saving the universe. She just didn’t want to send them off to prison alone.

That happened on the 9th. It was the 17th and Peggy hadn’t seen them since. She had spent most of her time with Bucky. Together, they tended to Bucky’s goats. Peggy didn’t understand why exactly Bucky had five goats. However, they gave her something to do while she waited on hearing the results on if they would pursue legal action or not. Once everything was sorted out, they would all determine if they could return to America or not. T’Challa had told them they were always welcome in Wakanda if it was needed.

Currently, Peggy was watching Bucky’s goats frolic in the field. Bucky sat next to her. He was surrounded by a handful of school aged children. They were braiding flowers into his long hair.

Dumbass—the goat Bucky named after Steve—started crying out. He had gotten his horns stuck in a piece of fencing. Bucky’s head snapped over. His eyes widened ever so slightly.

“I’ll rescue Dumbass,” Peggy promised Bucky. She quickly shot to her feet and began jogging towards the goat. She didn’t want Bucky to have to abandon the children that very clearly adored him.

Peggy whispered calming words to the goat that was trashing his body instead of his head. The horns were wrapped in the fence… good lord this goat was a moron.

She reached forwards. All she had to do was pull the wire fence slightly. The goat popped away. It quickly ran off to return to his friends. Peggy moved to sit on a nearby rock.

The sun shone down on her. She could hear a creek babbling in the distance. Children were laughing as they tugged and hung on Bucky. She closed her eyes, tilting her head up towards the sky. She was slowly falling in love with Wakanda. She had never been anywhere quite as beautiful. She wished she could stay here forever. She had a life to return to. She had to rebuild. She needed to find a new job. She was going to try for an FBI or CIA field agent position. She wasn’t sure why, but she wanted to keep her distance from Shield.

“Hey,” Steve said.

Peggy opened her eyes to look at Steve. She moved over, allowing enough room on the rock for him. He had shaved his beard since the last time Peggy saw him. He was dressed differently, too. He wore jeans and an awfully tight t-shirt. He had even changed his hair. He had a cut that was similar to what Peter had. Angie probably would have approved of Steve if she had seen him with this appearance. Instead, she had met shaggy, on the run from the government ‘Grant Barnes.’ That reminded Peggy that she’d have to tell Bucky that story. He would appreciate it.

“Good afternoon, darling,” she responded.

“Wanda’s destroying the Infinity Stones. Need to know basis only. 10 tonight. I can swing by your room and pick you up if you’re interested in going.” Steve was brisk, straight to the point.

“I’ll see you then. How did everything go with the government?”

Steve sighed. He ran his hand over his face. “They’re pressing charges. Tony swears he has good lawyers that will get us out with just a slap on the wrist. I don’t think we’ll get that lucky. Tony and Bruce will probably get off relatively okay. Now that they’ve got me, Nat, Sam, and Wanda they’re going to go hard on us.”

“What about Scott?” Peggy questioned. Scott had Cassie to worry about.

“Scott was at home, taking care of his child. He had no idea any of this happened.”

“Good.”

Steve fell silent. His eyes fell on Dumbass. Dumbass was jumping up and down. There was a large chunk of grass hanging from his mouth. Nearby, Rebecca and Dum Dum watched. Bucky had named all the goats after family and friends from his past. He hadn’t named a goat after her.

“I’m glad Bucky likes it here,” Steve spoke softly. His eyes fell on Bucky who was playing with the children. Bucky lifted his arm and waved at them. Bucky quickly turned and began ushering the children away from them. “Are you going to stay in Wakanda?”

“No,” Peggy told him. “I have work to do.”

“You’re welcome to come with us, Peggy,” Steve told her. “If the charges are harsh, we’re going to go on the run again. If not, I’d like to settle down somewhere.”

Peggy smiled sadly at him. She shook her head. “I’m going to rebuild. I’ll be wherever I can get a job as an agent.”

“I understand.” Steve hesitated before he spoke again. “I remember seeing you in DC. It’s foggy, but I remember it. I would visit you constantly. You had Alzheimer’s. I went to your funeral. Sharon texted me telling me you died. I took the next flight out to London. I mentioned that to Natasha. She told me that wasn’t you. I met with Rebecca Barnes. I attended her funeral in London. Rebecca’s husband and all living relatives were from there. I went back and searched my messages. I never got any texts about you dying from Sharon. I got one from Rebecca’s care taker, Sydney, instead.”

“An entire life I’ll never live,” Peggy spoke softly.

"An entire life left to live as an Avenger," Steve countered.

"I look forward to it."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m posting this off my phone. There shouldn’t be any major formatting issues, but if there are let me know and I’ll fix it as soon as I’m able to get on WiFi! 
> 
> One chapter left! I can’t believe it. Thank you so much to everybody who has read this! I really appreciate it. As soon as I’m able to get my computer on WiFi, I’ll be uploading the final chapter. That will probably either be in 10 minutes or in several hours. Don’t forget to subscribe to the series if you are interested in more adventures with Steve and Peggy! I’ve got everything from fluff to action planned out for them. Of course, if you have any requests for stuff you’d love to see any of these characters do, please let me know! I check all the comments, so if you leave it there I’ll see it and I may try setting up my old tumblr so people can leave them there too if they prefer. Thank you guys for reading!


	30. April 3rd, 2021

 

She pulled her freshly bleached hair into a pony tail. Peggy stood around, waiting and polishing a glass. Her target was a Wilson Fisk operative. Phineas Zimman. He was a brunet Irish man that frequented this shitty bar that was tucked away in lower Manhattan. She needed information on what Wilson Fisk’s latest construction site was a cover for. That required Peggy to be away from her nice, warm apartment in DC. This was her most recent FBI assignment. She had to become a bartender. She needed to watch and observe him. She would build his trust and then get the information out of him. In this day and age, torture was usually frowned upon which meant that was a method Peggy couldn’t use. So, Peggy was in this mission for the long haul. She had already been stationed here for two weeks. Zimman wasn’t suspicious at all.

The door jingled open. Peggy glanced up. It was a slow time for the bar. It was only around three. Zimman usually arrived right before 6 and stumbled home to his wife and children at 10 every night. The only other patron currently in the bar was Sal. He would sit slumped over at the far corner of the bar. He alternated between drinking, ordering their fried pickle specialty, and sleeping. Truthfully, he was good company. Peggy’s manager usually hid in the back room, only coming out for the busy hours. It was just her and Sal most hours.

The new person walked through the door. Red hair fell past her shoulders. The ends of her hair were bleached blonde from where she had been letting it grow out over the years.

“A Manhattan,” said Natasha, sliding into the bar seat.

Peggy set the glass down. She turned around, grabbing bourbon off the shelf. She began making the drink before setting it down in front of Natasha.

“So,” Natasha said with a pop of her lips. “This seems like a pretty sweet gig. Do they let you keep the tips?”

Peggy glanced up. Currently, Sal was passed out. “How’ve you been, Nat?”

“I was great until Stark called,” Natasha spoke softly. “I’ve got bad news, Agent. You’ve been reassigned.”

“I don’t believe you work at the FBI and have the ability to make those decisions.”

“It’s in your contract that the Avengers that precedence. Tony’s already contacted your boss. Carlson, right?”

Peggy turned around, reaching up to grab herself a glass and some whiskey. She took a long sip. “Which alien species is invading today?”

“We’re not that lucky. Rumor has it that people aren’t the biggest fan of what Tony’s done.”

“You’ll have to be more specific.”

“An unknown organization is upset that Thanos lost. They decided the best way to go about letting Thanos win is to assassinate Howard Stark. No Howard means no Tony. No Tony means we’d lose against Thanos.”

“That’s already been done,” Peggy responded. She remembered the night Steve had broken the news to her. She knew Howard had made a lot of enemies, but part of her had hoped he would die a natural death of old age. She nearly didn’t believe that the person who killed him was Bucky.

“Sooner. 1960. They want him dead before he meets Maria Stark.”

“And where exactly did Tony acquire this information?”

“Howard told him. Tony was showing Morgan old video footage of her grandpa. Tony swears it wasn’t there before. Howard said that Carter, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Scarlet Witch rescue him from an assassination attempt in the Shield’s DC office when he was working alone one night.”

Peggy nodded, taking in all of this information. Truthfully, Peggy would love to see Howard again. She wished she had been able to explain everything instead of keeping it a secret. She wanted to let Jarvis know that she was still alive. Now she had that chance. A few moments of her in the past wouldn’t destroy the world.

Natasha looked up at Peggy. The corner of her mouth twitched upwards. “Are you ready for another adventure, Ms. Rogers?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short and sweet epilogue. 
> 
> I really want to challenge myself and write a huge variety of fics that take place in one set series. I have several started already and they'll be up soon. These range from Peggy getting roped into helping Peter with a school project to Steve and Peggy's proposal and marriage. Of course, I'll always take prompts as well! Pretty soon, I'll start working on the story that this epilogue sets up as well. 
> 
> Don't forget to subscribe to the Intertwined series if you're interested in more Steggy fics! 
> 
> Thank you so much to everybody who has read this! I hope you enjoyed the story! There's more to come!


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